Nestle today (7 December) announced it is to certify its flagship confectionery brand Kit Kat as Fairtrade in the UK and Ireland – following a similar move from Cadbury earlier this year. Here we take a look at some facts on Fairtrade chocolate in the UK.

1. The Fairtrade Foundation estimates the latest moves by Nestle and Cadbury, combined with sales from Fairtrade companies and own-label supermarket brands, will take sales of Fairtrade chocolate to approaching 10% of the UK chocolate market in 2010. An increase from under 1% in 2008.

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2. UK sales of Fairtrade chocolate alone exceeded GBP35m in retail value in 2008.

3. Cadbury officially introduced Fairtrade certification for its flagship Dairy Milk chocolate in the UK on 22 July. The confectionery giant, which first announced the move in March, said it had “committed” to offering the Fairtrade bar at “no extra cost – and with no change to the taste”.

4. The first Fairtrade product to be launched in the UK was Green & Black’s Maya Gold, with cocoa from Belize in 1994.

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5. The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992. Five years later in Ghana, cocoa farmer co-operative Kuapa Kokoo voted to establish the first 100% Fairtrade chocolate brand, Divine Chocolate in 1997.

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6. Fairtrade chocolate and cocoa sales reached their first GBP1m (US$1.6m) in 1998. In 2003, sales of Fairtrade chocolate and other cocoa products topped GBP10m. This figure doubled in 2005 to top GBP20m.

7. In 2000, UK supermarket chain The Co-operative Group launched the first supermarket own-label Fairtrade chocolate bar. The supermarket became the first retailer to switch all its own-label chocolate to Fairtrade in partnership with Divine in 2002.

8. UK Fairtrade organisation Traidcraft launched its first box of Fairtrade Belgian chocolates in 2001.

9. In the same year, Body Shop shares in Divine Chocolate were donated to Kuapa Kokoo, increasing the co-op’s stake to 45%.

10. One of the first Fairtrade certified producers, cocoa farmer Justino Peck, from Toledo Cacao Growers Association, a farmers’ cooperative in southern Belize, still sells his Fairtrade cocoa to Green & Black’s, who use it in their Maya Gold chocolate.