Have a heart, KitKat, don't break with Fairtrade

Nestle is big in York, but the city is fighting the brand's decision to make life harder for African cocoa farmers

Here's a quiz question: how many KitKats are produced in the Nestle factory in York each year? A hundred million? Keep going. The plant makes a billion of the UK's bestselling chocolate bars annually. That volume is one reason that the company's shameful decision to end the brand's Fairtrade certification will have such a devastating effect on cocoa farmers.

I visited some of the Fairtrade-certified cocoa farms in Ivory Coast last year. Seeing the difference that a measure of financial security can make to some of the poorest villages on earth is a lasting lesson in the mechanics of hope.