A Divine Union
Happy (belated) World Fair Trade Day!
After my colleague Melinda told me about a cool fair trade company she’d recently discovered, I decided some arduous primary research was in order. I eyed the glossy wrapper of a bar that claimed to contain “Heavenly Chocolate with a heart,” took a deep breath, and sampled the 70% dark chocolate inside. Mmmm…now that I can safely vouch for the blissful sensory experience that Divine Chocolate’s name implies, I thought I should explore the “heart” of the products and the story behind their creation.
I didn’t have to look further than the inside of the wrapper for the second phase of my research. Assuming that a Divine bar consumer doesn’t tear the packaging to shreds in a hasty craving-fueled frenzy, he or she is treated to a rich organizational narrative printed on the paper jacket in addition to the rich cocoa it contains.
The Divine story begins in 1879, when the first cocoa was exported from Ghana. During the next century, cocoa farmers in Ghana have endured a “precarious business” in which “the world price for cocoa often dips below the level at which it pays enough for small-scale farmers to survive.” In order to weather the tumultuous industry more effectively, a group of farmers banded together in 1993 to form the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative.
By 1997, the farmers had secured outside investors and were able to launch their own fair trade chocolate company in the United Kingdom. Profits that Kuapa Kokoo members earn from Divine Chocolate sales are invested in their communities so that “each year more villages can sink their own drinking water wells, build schools, or benefit from healthcare schemes.”
A few years ago, Divine Chocolate crossed the Atlantic thanks to investments from Oikocredit, Lutheran World Relief, and Serrv international. Chocolate from the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farms has been available in the US since 2007, and can now be found at over one thousand locations across the country.
To learn more about how you can support fair trade companies like Divine Chocolate, visit OikocreditUSA.
