Divine Chocolate facts for kids
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| Industry | Retail (Fair Trade) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Products | Chocolate |
Divine Chocolate Limited is a company from the UK that makes delicious Fairtrade chocolate. It started in 1998. The company was first owned by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers' co-operative in Ghana, along with Twin Trading and The Body Shop. Groups like Christian Aid and Comic Relief also helped. Later, The Body Shop gave their shares to Kuapa Kokoo. This made the farmers' share of Divine Chocolate Ltd grow from 33% to 45%.
How Divine Chocolate Helps Farmers
Divine Chocolate has a special way of doing business. The farmers who grow the cocoa beans own the biggest part of the company. This means they share in the company's profits.
Divine Chocolate helps the Kuapa Kokoo farmers in four main ways:
- They pay a fair price for the cocoa beans. This is either the Fairtrade minimum price or the world price, whichever is higher.
- They pay an extra $200 for every tonne of cocoa. This is called the Fairtrade premium.
- They give 2% of their yearly sales to help farmers with support and development.
- The farmers get 44% of the company's profits that are shared out.
Who Owns Divine Chocolate?
After The Body Shop gave their shares to Kuapa Kokoo in 2007, Divine Chocolate Ltd was owned by these groups:
- Kuapa Kokoo, the Fairtrade cocoa farmers' group in Ghana, owned 45%.
- Twin Trading, a special trading group in London, owned 43%.
- Oikocredit, a Dutch group that helps small businesses, owned 12%.
In 2015, the Divine Chocolate businesses in the UK and USA joined together. Kuapa Kokoo still owned the biggest part, with 44% of the new company. Divine Chocolate Ltd (UK) now owns 100% of Divine Chocolate Inc. (USA).
Awards and Recognition
Divine Chocolate has won many awards for its fair and ethical business practices.
- In 2002, it was a runner-up for the Worldaware Award. This award recognized the company for bravely promoting fair trade in the chocolate market.
- In 2007, it was named Best Social Enterprise.
- In 2008, it was voted Best Ethical Business by The Observer.
- Also in 2008, Good Housekeeping voted Divine Chocolate as their Favourite Fairtrade Product.
- In 2013, two Divine products won Great Taste Awards.
- More recently, Divine was named Favourite Fairtrade Product in the UK.
- It also won Social Enterprise of the Year in 2014.
- In 2015, it won The Guardian Sustainable Business Award for Social Impact Innovation.
