What kind of chocolate will you be buying this Easter?

Easter means different things to different people. However, at this time of year one thing that remains constant is the desire to get stuck into chocolate eggs.

It doesn’t matter if you buy milk, white or dark, but there are a few things you should know about chocolate before you hit the shops for your fix.

Palm oil:  This oil has many negative environmental consequences, including deforestation. During 1998 and 1999, loss of orangutans reached a rate of about 1,000 per year. A whopping 80 per cent of orangutan habitat has been altered or lost and it's forecast that at the current rate of deforestation, they could be extinct in the wild in as little as 20 years.

Easter Bilbies:  The bilby used to be a common animal across Australia, numbering in the millions. Due to the introduction of pests, such as rabbits, these days their numbers have dwindled to hundreds and they desperately need our help if they are to avoid extinction. The Easter Bilby campaign began in the early 1990s in an effort to raise conservation funds. Two iconic Australian chocolate firms (Haigh’s Chocolates and Darrel Lea) now produce Easter Bilbies and donate percentages of the sales to saving these native animals.

Fair Trade:  Approximately 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa crop comes from West Africa, with Brazil and some Asian countries contributing the balance. A study completed in 2005 showed that in the Ivory Coast alone more than 200,000 children were entrenched in slave labour conditions in the farming of cocoa.

Fair Trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices, Fair Trade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate now uses Fair Trade cocoa that has no palm oil in it and they have also released a Fair Trade Easter Egg.

So what’s the best way to get your chocolate fix but avoid supporting deforestation and slave labour while aiding conservation efforts? Start with anything that is palm oil-free or Fair Trade chocolate. In an ideal world you would be going for an Easter bilby that was palm-oil free and paid the cocoa farmers a fair price!

From Anthony Ogilvie, Mission Australia’s Sustainability Manager

Further reading:

• 'Have an ethical Easter' - SMH
• 'Aussies urged to play fair this Easter' - ABC
• The best of Fair Trade - The Age
• Mission Australia's Sustainability Action Plan