So, on the 6th of July 2020 and on the 29th of March 2021, I published an article titled “Is Fairtrade Fair to Cocoa Farmers?” in The Cocoa Post, Ghana Talks Business and Business and Financial Times. Fairtrade Africa did the dutiful, by issuing a rejoinder to my article via The Cocoa Post and The Business and Financial Times, to clarify what they felt were “factual inaccuracies” in my article. I have read critically, Fairtrade Africa’s rejoinder to my article.
To my disappointment, they failed to address almost all the issues I raised and the “factual Inaccuracies” they claim to have identified but rather did a good job by diverting from the questions that required answering to publish a PR rejoinder.
To bring us back to the core issues which require answering, below are the arguments I raised (in bullets) and my analysis of how Fairtrade’s rejoinder attempted to address them.