Ben & Jerry’s® and Pronatura make a bet on fair trade

• Ben & Jerry’s® announces its commitment to have 100% Fair Trade suppliers.  
• Ben & Jerry’s® launches Chocolate Macadamia, an ice cream elaborated with ingredients obtained through fair trade.

Mexico City, June 2, 2009.- In line with its corporate social and environmental responsibility philosophy, Ben & Jerry’s®, a leading company in super premium ice cream production and commercialization, announces its goal of having 100% of its suppliers under the scheme of fair trade.

Fair Trade is oriented towards the integral and sustainable development of suppliers in the economic, social and environmental ambits, respecting their idiosyncrasy, their culture, traditions, human rights and the environment.

“Fair Trade’s objective is to make sure that people obtain their fair share of the pie. The concept of Fair Trade is at the heart of our values and our sense of good and wrong. Nobody wants to buy something that was made through the exploitation of someone else”, comments Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Fair Trade is a profound movement to create a more just World for people in the developing countries where the ingredients and flavors used in Ben & Jerry’s® ice creams are cultivated.
 
Thanks to Fair Trade, suppliers have the opportunity to provide a better income for their families, reinvest in their lands and improve their communities. The supplier policy that Ben & Jerry’s® maintains is based on the following principles:

• Sustainable farms: Support family farms that take care of their animals and land.
• Associations and fair alliances: Work with partners who improve the quality of live of the people in their communities.
• Natural ingredients: Use healthy and natural ingredients of the highest quality.
• Environmental Footprint: Reduce the environmental impact throughout the fabrication and commercialization process, from the cow to the cone.
• Pacific activism: Aid people who take actions for a more peaceful and just World.

To make this goal known, Ben & Jerry’s® present a new and delicious global flavor elaborated with ingredients acquired through fair trade:  Chocolate Macadamia is made with vanilla from India, chocolate from the Dominican Republic, macadamia from Malawi and milk from local farms in Vermont, USA, where the company’s headquarters are located.

The new Ben & Jerry’s® flavor has the global mission of providing fair trade to farmers and “campesinos” in emerging and developing countries. Created with ingredients from different places in the World, Chocolate Macadamia is the first global launching of Ben & Jerry’s®, and the fourth flavor to be introduced to the Company’s line of Fair Trade ice creams, where you can also enjoy the following flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate and Coffee Heath Bar Crunch with coffee obtained from a coffee growing community in Huatusco, Veracruz called the Regional Small Coffee Producers Union.

Furthermore, with the support of Pronatura Mexico A.C., with whom the company maintains an alliance since 2007, and with the purpose of sensibilizing the public to the importance of Fair Trade, Ben & Jerry’s® launched the contest Do the  World a Flavor, where participants competed to create the next flavor with global distribution elaborated in its entirety with Fair Trade ingredients. In the contest, participants learned about the history of the community behind each of the ingredients.

The participation was open to all of the counties where Ben & Jerry’s® has presence. National juries are to be formed to evaluate the favor proposals to pick a finalist per country to travel to a community in the Dominican Republic to know more about Fair Trade and its implications for society and the environment.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the creators of Ben & Jerry’s® will pick the winning World flavor. This favor will be commercialized by March 2010 in the 17 countries where the trademark has presence. The contest stated in April 14th and finished in May 26.