The Chocolate Wars

The last time when I wrote about chocolate, my focus was on slavery and the exploitation of children in particular. This time the focus is on palm oil plantations and specifically on the Cadbury Corporation.


The palm oil industry (as most of us know) is knocking down rainforests and burning peat across Indonesia and Malaysia to expand production to meet the increased demand. This is resulting in the release of massive amounts of greenhouse gases and the destruction of the habitat of endangered animals such as the orang-utan. Deforestation contributes about twenty percent of global carbon emissions; a figure widely accepted and commonly used at United Nations climate change conferences. Most of this country's palm kernel imports come from Indonesia, with the remainder from Malaysia. Both countries are currently experiencing large-scale clearance of rainforest for palm oil plantations.

Below is the latest Whittakers commercial comparative advertising their chocolate product to Cadbury's amongst the recent controversy about (1) Palm Oil being used in the Cadbury's Chocolate bars, (2) Cadbury moving production to Australia resulting in unemployment here in New Zealand and (3) the packaging size changes.



http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/19582/ 13th July

Auckland Zoo, located in New Zealand's largest city, has decided to banish the iconic chocolate brand, Cadbury, from its shelves. because the chocolate maker, one of the country's largest and most popular chocolate manufacturers, has substituted some of the cocoa solids in its products with palm oil, from plantations in South Asia.

“We are advocates for wildlife,” said Auckland Zoo's conservation officer, Peter Fraser. “The biggest threat for animals is encroaching palm oil plantations. The plantations lie in a biodiverse hotspot. Orangutans are critically endangered,” he said. But so are the Sumatran Tiger and Rhino, the small clawed Asian Otter, [and] reptile, and plant species.


Palm oil is derived from mainly from plantations in Indonesia, Borneo, Malaysia and South America. Currently only four percent of palm oil comes from sustainable sources. “We had to look at our shelves and see if there were any Cadbury products,” Mr. Fraser said.

The zoo has been selling Cadbury chocolates in it's shops and restaurant, and palm oil products also form part of the zoo's animal feed.

“If we talk the talk, we have to walk the walk.”

Mr. Fraser said it was not currently possible to remove all palm oil products from the zoo as, in the case of some animals' feed, there is no replacement right now.

Cadbury's Response

Cadbury spokesman, Daniel Ellis, told the Sunday Star Times that Cadbury was a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body tasked with ensuring responsible and sustainable palm oil crops.

Greenpeace Response

Vanessa Atkinson, Greenpeace New Zealand climate campaigner said that, [being] “RSPO certified doesn't mean that the palm oil you buy is sustainable or that it hasn't caused rainforest clearing or climate impact. There is no segregation of suppliers in the supply chain."

Greenpeace warns that the carbon dioxide released by the draining and burning of peatlands for palm oil plantations in the South Asian region is responsible for four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Chocolate Eaters Respond too

Many Cadbury's customers are also dismayed and outraged. The outrage is such that bloggers are criticizing the altered product and promising to switch to competitors' products. A petition asking Parliament to put out warnings about palm oil is also in progress. Some consumers are disillusioned with the taste of the new product and are urging Cadbury to bring back the old recipe while others are angry over the effect of palm oil plantations on rainforests.

Apparently Cadbury Australia has been adding palm oil to its products for some time but New Zealanders have only recently been surprised with downsized bars of chocolate which have a different taste and texture to how they tasted before.