Beccles now has its very own chocolate bar, and most important of all, it’s a Fairtrade chocolate bar! UK tourist attractions now have access to a fully certified Fairtrade chocolate bar with a customised wrapper. These are produced in the UK by the Meaningful Chocolate Company, an ethical chocolate business.
https://meaningfulchocolate.co.uk/
They are also aimed at historic towns like Beccles, “Gateway to the Broads”.
Our customised wrapper includes a beautiful picture of Beccles St. Michael’s church tower, courtesy of Beccles Camera Club, and the following information:
Beccles has been a Fairtrade Town since 2008. We are proud that businesses and organisations in our town stock Fairtrade products. This means producers, like the growers of cocoa and sugar used in Fairtrade chocolate, receive a fair price along with good working conditions.
The Beccles Bar carries the Fairtrade logo, to show that it is a certified product. In addition to a fair price and good working conditions, this means growers and workers are paid a Premium, which their local communities spend on local needs, ranging from education and health projects to fresh water supplies and measures such as tree planting to help offset the effects of global warming.
To find out more, see https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
The sugar in our bars comes from cooperatives in Paraguay and Belize. Most of the cocoa is from cooperatives in the Ivory Coast (Kuapa Kokoo Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union Limited Ghana). Beans are also sourced from cooperatives in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Panama and Ecuador.
This initiative has been set up by Beccles Fairtrade Town Group, who promote
Fairtrade in the town. To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/FairtradeBeccles or email bftnetwork@btinternet.com.
Following a product launch at Beccles St. Michael’s Church Tower by Mayor Christine Wheeler on Friday, April 19th at 10.30am, bars will be on sale at Beccles Bookshop, Museum and Public Hall, Sweeties and the Tower itself.
We expect further outlets to be available in due course.
The chocolate seems likely to prove popular with local people as well as visitors to the town.
