Blog – Sustainability and ethics

Having spent 30+ years in the charity sector sustainability, ethics and fair prices was a non-negotiable for me in setting our business it.  In the high street settings farmers receive just 6% of the market share. This exploits farmers and keeps them locked into the poverty circle.  Farmers already suffer with poor crops due to the weather or infestations.  We are all aware of Fairtrade, however more recently faith has been lost with large companies withdrawing from the scheme, many devising their own schemes with varying levels of transparency so we researched these in detail to find a supplier who had a solid commitment to farmers, ethical farming and community support whilst balancing these with the quality we required.

We ultimately decided to use Casa Luker as our primary supplier.  It’s a family business that is a social enterprise in Colombia.  The country has been embroiled in multiple conflicts, 63% of families are living in poverty and 45% of young people are unemployed.  Luker has been in operation for 117 years.  They have a research operation to further develop the ethical farming of cocoa to reduce the likelihood of crop failures and reduce further deforestation.    They invest heavily in supporting their communities.  Farmers receive training and development in improving their yields and therefore receive a much higher level of income.  They provide opportunities to young people to develop their employability and entrepreneurial skills.  They work more widely in the communities alongside other NGOs to build schools and further develop their communities. 

We’re often asked why we don’t do bean to bar.  For us, we wanted to ensure that the company retained as much as possible.  In bean to bar companies in the UK they take the beans and then create their chocolate product, however, by processing this in the Luker business it ensures that more profit is retained for distributed to Luker

By buying our chocolates you are helping support farmers and their communities.