Last Thursday was a pretty surreal day for me and my colleagues from York Fair Trade Forum, representing over a quarter of a million people to a multinational company, by standing on the roadside in an ‘I Stand with Farmers’ facemask! 

I’ve only just recovered, and there’s been no official response from Nestle yet. But having already met them weeks ago I’m not expecting any positive developments to be honest. 

I wanted to share a quick summary of some of the brilliant media coverage and public support we got on the day Thanks so much to everyone who got involved, sharing your selfies and our video and graphics online and contacting Nestle directly. The Twitter hashtag #IStandWithFarmers had over 4 million estimated impressions on the day with a further 6 million seeing tweets about Fairtrade and Nestle or KitKat. We really made an impact. 

You can read my blog about the day including details of our 4 minutes in Parliament (with support from Labour, Conservative and SNP MPs) and media coverage from the BBC and others.  

Read the blog on the Fairtrade Yorkshire website

Our public pressure does seem to have made some positive difference for farmers. Nestle are now at least speaking with cocoa farmers’ representative bodies and have made some extra commitments to protect farmers’ rights and incomes in the short-term. 

Ultimately cocoa farmers are losing out and losing powers because of this decision, and that makes this a sad time. 

But it’s reassuring to know so many of you remain committed to choosing Fairtrade to give farmers the respect they deserve for their hard work.  

Thanks so much for all your support – it's been amazing reading through your supportive comments and I was humbled and honoured to hand in our petition last Thursday.