Where to Find Ethically Made Chocolate in the UAE

Indulge your sweet tooth with our guide to guilt-free chocolates available in the UAE

Posted on

6 July 2022

by Clarice Awa

List of ethically made chocolates in the UAE

A list of chocolates in the UAE that don't just taste good, but also does good.

Cheap and mainstream chocolate brands might be great for saving a few dirhams, but it often includes ingredients and sourcing methods that are not as great in the long run. We're talking about refined sugar and palm oil* to deforestation and even unethical labour**.

For the conscious chocolate lovers who want to shop smart, there's a variety of ethical chocolate brands that have popped up in shops cross the UAE. This means the chocolate you'll buy was grown, farmed, and made with the environment in mind, and that the company has treated its farmers and workers fairly.

So if you're looking for guilt-free chocolates that will satisfy your cravings, consider our list of ethically made chocolate brands you can find in the UAE. This guide will also explain what do the certification labels mean on the chocolate packaging.

What are the certification labels found in chocolate?

Choosing to buy ethically made chocolates means choosing to support better wages, improved working conditions, sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers.

By buying a chocolate product that has any of the following labels on its packaging, you can help support their communities.

Fair Trade labels (Fair Trade System, Fair for Life, Naturland Fair, Small Producers’ Symbol, etc.)
Fair Trade Certified
Rainforest Alliance (RA) / UTZ (Rainforest Alliance and UTZ merged in 2018)

Where to buy Fairtrade chocolates in the UAE

What do these certification labels mean?

Fair Trade labels

These are some of the labels to look for in your chocolate packaging, according to the Fair World Project***.

Fair Trade System
Fair for Life
Naturland Fair
Small Producers’ Symbol

You can be rest assured that chocolate products with any of the above labels will include a high threshold of certified ingredients, and were produced while prioritising farmworkers as well as small-scale chocolate farmers.

Fair Trade Certified

Not to be confused with the Fair World Project, the Fair Trade Certification is a third-party certification system. Keep in mind that chocolate products with the Fair Trade Certified label means at least 20% of the ingredients are certified to be fairly sourced, so there's still some gaps when it comes to fair and environmentally-friendly production.

Rainforest Alliance (RA) / UTZ

Chocolates with the Rainforest Alliance or UTZ labels are products made keeping in mind the planet, farmers, workers, and communities****.

Ethically made chocolate brands available the UAE

Some of the brands listed below are completely fair trade while others, such as Marks and Spencer, Maltesers, and Cadbury, offer only a selection of chocolates that carry a fair trade mark. You will have to keep an eye out for products carrying these labels.