Press Releases

This Valentine's Day New Line of Fair Trade, Organic Chocolate Confections Answers the Call of Conscious Consumers

As gourmet chocolate sales boom and consumer consciousness grows, Global Exchange introduces one of the first Fair Trade, Organic Chocolate Confections for Valentine's Day. Fair Trade, Organic Chocolates Make this Valentine's Day Sweet for Loved Ones, Cocoa Farmers and the Environment.

More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of conventional chocolate are sold every Valentine's Day. But while Valentine's Day chocolate is sweet for the US, it has been heartbreaking for cocoa producers. Most cocoa farmers are trapped in poverty and forced to rely on child labor and even child slavery. In fact, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), US Department of State and UNICEF, tens of thousands of children work on cocoa farms in West Africa, particularly in the Ivory Coast.

This Valentine's Day chocolate indulgence can truly be guilt free. Global Exchange's Organic Chocolate Confections are "Fair Trade" certified, to ensure that farmers and artisans are paid a living wage, that products aren't made using exploitative child labor, and that they promote production techniques that do not harm the environment. Confections come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate crème, caramel, and toffee almond. Each gift box is presented in elegant wine-colored packaging with ribbon and includes a complimentary full-color postcard featuring information about Fair Trade.

"Chocolate connects the millions of Americans who eat it daily to the millions of growers around the world who depend on it for their livelihoods," says Tex Dworkin, Manager of the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store. "Now that connection can be rewarding for the consumer and the producer, both of whom are getting sweet treatment. Our chocolate confections mark the union of growing social consumerism with the increased demand for high end gourmet chocolate."

Global Exchange chocolate will be sold at our four retail Fair Trade Stores: an Online Store at www.globalexchangestore.org and three brick & mortar locations (in San Francisco, Portland, and Berkeley).

Chocolate will also be available at wholesale rates under two programs; the Fundraising Program, where organizations, schools, and other groups interested in fundraising can sell chocolate to earn profits, and the Resellers Program, for retail store buyers interested in offering the line in their stores.

Global Exchange, www.globalexchange.org, is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world.