Is Fairtrade chocolate really fair?

Ethical Consumer awards Fairtrade certification positively in our cocoa rating, because – although it’s not widely adopted in the chocolate industry – where it is adopted it genuinely ensures slightly fairer pay for some farmers. 

But there are many flaws with Fairtrade.

Juan Andres Santelices sets out some of those flaws in an opinion piece.

Opinion piece: ‘Fairtrade has failed to deliver justice for farmers’

For more than three decades, Fairtrade certification has promised consumers a way to enjoy chocolate with a clean conscience. By paying a little extra, we are told, farmers in the Global South receive a fairer deal. Yet beneath the familiar logo lies a system that has failed to deliver real justice for the farmers who grow cacao.

The Fairtrade mark was designed to guarantee smallholders a minimum price and improved working conditions. But has this reality been achieved? Despite its popularity in the Global North, many cacao farmers remain trapped in poverty, while child labour and deforestation linked to cocoa cultivation continue to be a significant problem. The chocolate industry is worth billions, but less than 8% of that wealth reaches the farmers.

Who Really Benefits?

Over the past few decades, the price paid for a tonne of cacao beans has generally been in decline (with the exception of the last two years). The Fairtrade Minimum Price (FMP) has typically been only marginally higher – by about 5% to 10% – yet now, even as the market price of cacao has risen sharply, the FMP has not been adjusted accordingly. This is despite the fact that farmers’ costs have increased dramatically since 2020.

Cacao buyers want to pay the same or less for cacao beans to increase profits and not pass on costs to consumers who want to pay the same price for their chocolate. Fairtrade has not been able to address this issue. Meanwhile, the farmers are putting in the same amount or more resources every year and even FMP may have not been able to offer a living minimum wage.

Fairtrade has launched a new Fairtrade Income Reference Price, but experts including organisations such as Solidaridad have said that this “does not reflect the right of cocoa farmers to earn a living income.”

Furthermore, certification also comes at a cost. Fairtrade farmers must pay steep fees to maintain their status, while multinationals such as Nestlé face relatively few compliance demands. They can continue sourcing cacao unethically, while selling Fairtrade chocolate on the side. For farmers unable to afford certification, exclusion from the market is the only option. This creates a two-tier system that locks out the very people Fairtrade claims to support. Why should the organisations (whether that’s farming co-operatives or VAS chocolate companies) who are more ethical, have to pay extra for certifications to show they are, whereas the ones abusing and destroying our planet and communities do not have to pay anything at all?

What emerges is a troubling picture: Fairtrade certification is not dismantling global inequalities but helping to socialise colonialism. 

Cacao only grows in the South but the processing, branding and profits remain concentrated in the importing countries of Europe and North America. 

This means they capture the wealth and prestige and can offer their chocolate as Swiss, Belgium or ‘made in the UK’. 

All the fees made from the certification process are retained by national Fairtrade Organisations who are also in the North and not in countries of origin. This is not liberation: it is the rebranding of a colonial trade model for the ethical consumer era.

Time to Rethink “Fair”

Fairtrade has become a comforting illusion. It allows consumers in the North to feel virtuous, while obscuring the reality of structural injustice. In doing so, it helps normalise—“socialise”—a colonial pattern of trade that keeps cacao farmers poor and dependent.

True fairness requires more than a logo on a wrapper. It demands a shift in power: away from corporations and certifiers in London or Amsterdam, and towards the farmers and communities who cultivate cacao. Supporting Tree to Bar enterprises is one way to take that step.

Next time you buy chocolate, ask yourself: do you want to reinforce a colonial trade pattern, or invest in a fairer future built at the source? We need your voice and your power as consumers, to help push for a truly just model.

A response from Fairtrade International

‘Fairtrade: Global impacts driven by producers’

Fairtrade has been at the forefront of supporting farmers and workers and advancing human rights for over 30 years. Our mission is to make trade fairer for farmers and workers.  In a study co-funded by the European Union, conducted in 2025, research found that Fairtrade’s financial tools, rigorous standards and producer support are effectively driving progress toward fairer and more sustainable global trade.

Beyond the minimum price

Millions of farmers in key cocoa producing countries still live below the extreme poverty line, while rising climate instability threatens yields through erratic rainfall, disease outbreaks, and rising temperatures.

The Fairtrade Minimum Price, which protects farmers when market prices fall is just one of the tools we use. The Fairtrade Premium, Fairtrade’s most impactful interventions, enables democratic investment in priorities chosen democratically by producer members, ranging from education and healthcare to infrastructure and farm productivity. In 2023, €82 million in Fairtrade Premium was paid to cocoa producers helping to address extreme poverty as well as the threats posed by climate change to cocoa farms.

Fairtrade’s Cocoa Standard strengthens sustainability, human rights, and traceability. A 2024 study found Fairtrade cooperatives better equipped to protect forests than non-certified peers. The Standard sets rigorous requirements for environmental and human rights due diligence (HREDD), with shared compliance between producers and commercial actors.

While certification sets standards and ensure fairer conditions for producers, Fairtrade goes further by combining certification with broader strategies – such as advocating for policies and legislation that hold companies accountable covering areas such as environmental and human rights due diligence and living income benchmarks. This approach aims to embed trading practices into the rules of global trade. 

Fairtrade is innovating to achieve a fairer future for farmers and workers. Most recently, Fairtrade was recognised in the UK government’s trade strategy for its Shared ImPact initiative, which is galvanising industry actors to reconfigure sourcing practices in ways that work better for producers. For farmers selling into global markets, this means Fairtrade is not only pushing for better pay, but also for fairer terms that strengthen their ability to build resilient futures.

Shifting the balance of power towards the producer

Fairtrade places farmers and workers at the heart of decision-making through democratic cooperatives and inclusive governance. Its West Africa Cocoa Programme (WACP), led by the African Producer Network, has strengthened small-scale producers’ resilience, financial health, and cocoa quality. To date nearly 52,000 farmers across West Africa have been in good agricultural practices, improving cocoa quality and reducing losses. These outcomes reflect Fairtrade’s commitment to building a more equitable cocoa sector, where farmers can thrive.

Enabling farmers and producer organisations to capture more value is vital to shifting power dynamics in global cocoa industry. But chocolate production involves far more than the trade of cocoa beans. It requires investment in innovation, processing and manufacturing capabilities that, at present, remain concentrated outside the main cocoa-growing regions. Shifting this balance depends on supportive policy frameworks and long-term investment areas we also see as essential.

It is also important to recognise that many farmers and governments pursue agro-industrial strategies that combine raw material exports with diversification into other industries. Fairtrade’s role is to ensure that wherever trade occurs, it is fair, transparent, and delivers tangible benefits back to producers.

Fairtrade takes great pride in being a truly global movement that is locally led by producer networks such as Fairtrade Africa and CLAC, representing over 1.9 million farmers and workers across more than 1,800 cooperatives. This producer leadership is at the heart of everything we do, ensuring that Fairtrade remains grounded in the realities of farming communities. It is this structure that makes Fairtrade unique and gives us confidence that the changes we fight for are driven by and for producers themselves.