Launched in the 1930s, the shape of the Kit Kat remains the same with its signature four finger crisp wafers.
What goes on under the wrapper, however, has been the site of fierce debate, scrutiny and struggle.
Ten years ago, in February 2010, Nestlé introduced Fairtrade cocoa into its UK and Ireland supply chains for its iconic chocolate bar, the Kit Kit. This guarantees a Fairtrade price (or market price if higher) for the commodity and farmer groups receive the Fairtrade premium to invest in long-term community and business projects of their own choice, such as education and healthcare.
Four decades of consumer-led campaigns over the Kit Kat’s ingredients, how they are sourced and the impact on workers in developing countries continue to this day.
Consumer activism continues today, with questions about how much of Nestlé’s coca is used across all of its cocoa-based products, and not only its best seller. The Kit Kat remains on Baby Milk Action’s boycott list as a result of limited progress, when compared with the wider impact of Nestlé’s supply chain.
Does an honest but difficult message about justice get ‘confused, diluted, discredited just when it needs to be heard more clearly than ever’?
Source: Nestlé
Year: 2009
Format: chocolate bar, cocoa, wrapper
Irish Global Solidarity in 100 Objects is organised by developmenteducation.ie, an online hub focused on learning about the unequal and unjust shape of the world today, and is coordinated by Aidlink, Concern Worldwide, the Irish Development Education Association, the National Youth Council of Ireland, Self Help Africa, Trócaire and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World.
DevelopmentEducation.ie is part funded by Irish Aid.
