Anti-Slavery International welcomes the Co-op's announcement that it will switch its entire own-brand chocolate bars to Fairtrade chocolate in 2,400 stores across the UK, bringing fairly traded cocoa firmly into the mainstream market.

This move sends an important message to manufacturers and retailers of chocolate that using ethically produced cocoa is commercially possible. This will help to protect children and adults in West Africa from forced labour in this sector and guarantee producers a fair price for their product.

Importantly, the Co-op is calling on chocolate manufactures to make at least one product in their range carry the Fairtrade mark, and for retailers to follow their example with their own-label block chocolate.

"This is a significant move. The best way consumers can be confident that the produce they use is free from exploited labour is by buying products that carry a fair trade label," Anti-Slavery International Deputy Director David Ould said.

To date, none of the major chocolate manufacturers currently has a Fairtrade product in its range.

An estimated 284,000 children work in hazardous conditions in West Africa's cocoa industry; some 2,500 may have been trafficked from other countries in the region, according to the first comprehensive study on child labour in the region's cocoa farms.

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