Does it do exactly what it says on the tin?

This is the essence of consumer gullibility, and probably for bananas it is indeed true. However, there are products – and one in particular – where this is not the case. Chocolate.

Is it now quite possible that the big brand chocolate bar with the Fairtrade label doesn’t contain any Fairtrade ingredients at all? Major confectionery manufacturers explained to Fairtrade that it was too complex to segregate ingredients in their factories, so Fairtrade devised a cunning plan.

Called ‘Mass Balance’, this allows the manufacturer to place the Fairtrade mark on the equivalent volume of finished products directly related to the amount of Fairtrade ingredients that have been bought. This means that a chocolate bar sold in Australia may not have been near a Fairtrade ingredient, so long as there’s a bar full of Fairtrade ingredients somewhere else that isn’t marked Fairtrade.

This system allows the major brands to offer Fairtrade products at only marginal price increases, and in one fell swoop blows all the smaller players (who have always had to take on the full complexity and costs of the system) out of the water.

It may be correct from an accounting point of view, but aren’t the consumers (as always) being duped? I wonder what the Trading Standards view would be.

Marc Donaldson is a partner at On The Ball Consulting. He’s the former president of Delfi Cocoa and the former CEO of Heritage Fine Chocolates. He was also managing director Asia Pacific for Barry Callebaut.