Favorina is Lidl’s own chocolate brand and it’s one of the only brands selling responsibly produced Easter eggs in Finland. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today

There’s hardly a food store in Finland that doesn’t swear in the name of fair trade in some of its products. Sadly, Easter eggs are not one of them.

Instead, we need the German store Lidl to pave the way.

Finnwatch, a Finnish civil society organisation focusing on corporate responsibility, compared the selection of Easter eggs in the Finnish grocery stores, and found that S Group, Kesko Corporation, Suomen Lähikauppa and Stockmann don’t have any UTZ certified Easter eggs in their selection. UTZ (Universal Trade Zone) stands for sustainable farming and the certification doesn’t come easily.

UTZ certified farms and businesses, are closely monitored by independent third parties. These requirements include good agricultural practices and farming management, safe and healthy working conditions, abolition of child labour and protection of the environment.

In Lidl, about 60 per cent of the Easter eggs on the shelves are certified by UTZ. Each and every Favorina Easter egg, which is Lidl’s own brand, has a UTZ certificate for cocoa.

“The result for other [Finnish] food chains was poor. The problems related to child labour and human trafficking are known to everybody,” said Sonja Vartiala, CEO of Finnwatch, in a bulletin.

After Finnwatch conducted its comparison, the Finnish food chains stressed that responsibly produced Easter eggs will find their way to the Finnish stores in the future.