We have decided to discontinue the popular Chocoreale chocolate spreads after several years. As this decision will probably disappoint many of our Chocoreale lovers, we would like to explain this step to you:
In the last months we received several customer inquiries concerning the production and working conditions of the Chocoreale products which are not Fair Trade certified. We have therefore contacted the manufacturer Natudis and asked for information on the origin of the cocoa, sugar and palm oil used for the production of Chocoreale spreads. Unfortunately the outcome of our inquiry was very deflating: Our contact person refused to give us the suppliers’ names for data privacy reasons and we received only intangible and insufficient information on the production and working conditions of the raw materials which are known for its domination by exploitative industries. It was not even assured that the minimum standards of the International Labour Organization are met. As a consequence, our collective decided that Chocoreale products violate our mission statement, so that we will not order them anymore.
Furthermore we have found an ethically more acceptable alternative: Equita Dark Chocolate spread by the Fair Trade company el puente. It’s just as yummy as the Chocoreale spreads (unfortunately there’s only one flavour available) und can be spread on your bread with a much clearer conscience. We know that 4 euros are a lot of money for a spread but please remember that chocolate spreads are luxury products so it is only logical to pay a little more on such a product. Concerning our Chocoreale lovers, we’d like to encourage you to bombard the manufacturer with letters of inquiry until they finally rethink their strategy. A fairly traded Chocoreale spread would be very welcome on our shop again. The last numbers of Chocoreale will be sold in the upcoming weeks.
Of course we are interested in your opinions on this decision: Are you OK with paying one euro more to get a fairly traded spread or do you think that the price of the product is not acceptable? Just send as an email or write a comment!