This conversion, along with Cadbury's recent move into Fairtrade with Dairy Milk, shows the significant power of consumer demand for Fairtrade and reinforces the fact that Fairtrade makes good business sense as well as helping in the fight against poverty.
Long-term Traidcraft and fair trade supporters will remember the initial excitement surrounding Nestlé's early venture into Fairtrade, with its Partners Blend coffee, which was followed by disappointment when they failed to extend their commitment to Fairtrade further.
KitKat is only one of a wide range of chocolate products Nestlé produces, and we hope that with this announcement comes a deeper, long-lasting commitment to Fairtrade by Nestlé – not just within its confectionary range but across many more of its product categories.
The adoption of Fairtrade by the mainstream has been a goal of Traidcraft's for a long time. It's through the ongoing actions of supporters buying the early Fairtrade cocoa products to establish a market that dedicated fair trade organisations, like Traidcraft and Divine Chocolate, have been able to pioneer fair trade developments which ultimately lead to companies like Nestlé taking this step.
Paul Chandler, Traidcraft Chief Executive, said: "It's great to see popular brands like KitKat and Dairy Milk follow the lead of the fair trade pioneers. With Fairtrade cocoa, sugar and coffee now firmly in the mainstream, isn't it time for the big tea brands – Yorkshire Tea, Tetley’s, PG Tips, Twinings and Typhoo – to do the same and help improve the lives of millions of small-scale tea farmers and workers?"
