Organic Gourmet Mix Offers Consumers Socially Responsible Option

CANTON, MA - August 29th, 2002 - Equal Exchange, the nation's leading fair trade coffee company, today introduces America's first hot cocoa mix to carry the Fair Trade Certified™ label. The label guarantees consumers that the cocoa was produced and sourced in a socially responsible manner. An independent non-profit certifying body, TransFair USA, certifies both the labor conditions and the prices paid to cocoa farmers and authorizes the use of its label on Equal Exchange's hot cocoa mix. The organic cocoa is grown and supplied by CONACADO, a cooperative of small farmers in the Dominican Republic.

In 1986 Equal Exchange introduced fair trade to the U.S. coffee industry as a way to create better living conditions and more opportunities for struggling coffee farmers in poor countries. After years of slowly building the fair trade market Equal Exchange has recently been joined by over 100 companies who now offer at least one Fair Trade Certified™ coffee. The company hopes to duplicate this success within the cocoa trade.

Fair trade is a comprehensive set of practices that puts more control, and greater income, in the hands of impoverished, small-scale farmers in developing countries. Under fair trade consumers know that: the cocoa was grown and exported by a democratically organized cooperative of farmers; the cooperative was paid a fair, above-market price for its crop; and that high labor standards, including those for work safety, child labor and the freedom to organize are followed.

"We're excited to take the initiative and demonstrate that it's possible to offer people a great product that consumers can feel good about. We're especially happy to offer our first fair trade product that will appeal to kids. We hope the cocoa manufacturers will accept fair trade faster than the coffee trade did." - Rob Everts, Co-Director of Equal Exchange

Equal Exchange's new cocoa mix gives Americans an immediate, positive way to respond to the recent reports of chronic poverty, exploited child labor and slavery on cocoa farms in West Africa - the origin of 70% of the world's cocoa. Even though Americans spend $13 billion a year on cocoa products, low prices paid to farmers have kept them poor, vulnerable and desperate. Thanks to recent pressure the cocoa industry has begun to study the labor problem, but it will not produce voluntary standards for cocoa trading until 2005. Equal Exchange's hot cocoa enables consumers to support a more sustainable and just cocoa economy today.

In addition to being Fair Trade Certified™, Equal Exchange's organic cocoa is cultivated on small plots under a shade canopy that preserves critical elements of the native Dominican forests. Biologists have determined that this gentle, chemical free method of farming helps to maintain bio-diversity and protect the winter habitat of millions of migratory songbirds.

"One of the easiest ways consumers can help to sustain tropical eco-systems is to look for organic and shade-grown products. The small farmers, the birds, and the land all benefit." - Nature Conservancy biologist Jeffrey Parrish, Ph.D.

The mix's other key ingredients are also sourced in a responsible manner. The organic dried milk powder is provided by Organic Valley, a fast-growing American cooperative of family farms who produce their own brand of organic dairy products, meat, and orange juice. The sugar is also certified organic and is fairly traded from Paraguay.

Equal Exchange is currently rolling out this product to select supermarkets, natural food stores, and consumer cooperatives across the country. It is already available directly from Equal Exchange and via mail order. The cocoa should be available at 200-300 stores within the next 12 months. Over 1,000 congregations are also projected to place orders during this time through Equal Exchange's unique outreach program with faith-based organizations.

Equal Exchange, the pioneer and U.S. market leader in fair trade coffee since 1986, is a full service provider of high quality, organic coffee, tea and hot cocoa to supermarkets, cafés, and places of worship across North America. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting 24 small farmer cooperatives in 14 countries around the world. In keeping with its business philosophy Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative, owned and controlled by its employees.