Close to 300,000 people signed a petition set up by fellow Brit Joanna Pollard to voice their displeasure of Nestle’s decision to drop Fairtrade from our beloved KitKat.
Everyone on the windy island of GB, myself included, is familiar with a tradition of a KitKat and a cup of tea in the afternoon under the wildly succesful marketing campaign “Have a break. Have a KitKat”. Yet, that treat feels less sweet now that farmers are potentially getting short thrift from the company.
Unfortunately, the company isn’t offering ‘a break’ for the farmers of Côte d’Ivoire who are estimated to lose £500,000 ($646,000) in premiums. Nestle seems to be doing OK with profits of over $10bn annually.
On October 1st, Fairtrade Yorkshire (a county in the North of England) tweeted:
According to the organisations press release, on October 1st Joanna Pollard went to Nestle’s offices in the UK, based in York to hand in the petition.
A number of politicians have also weighed in with concerns. Jason McCartney a Member of Parliment said:
Nestle’s move is against the wishes of farmers who will be left with less money under their own control and without the clear commitments to future income that they have benefited from under Fairtrade. Nestle should think again. It also needs to be much more transparent about the detail of their new proposals.
We think Mr McCartney hit the nail on the head – what Nestle is doing, and frankly they’re not alone, is failing to be transparent in their plans, motives and expected outcomes. The cynic in me wonders if someone on the board needs to boost the shareprice to cash in on some short-term stock options?
But until companies are more transparent on their strategy, they cannot expect to earn the right of our trust.
