Reduce, Reuse, Renew and SAVE!

It seems an especially turbulent time here on planet earth. Besides our own struggling economy in the US  -both large businesses and small still treading water to stay afloat- there's an unprecedented amount of unrest and revolution in the Middle East and Africa. The collage of images floating across our TV and computer screens can be inspiring and even awesome.

But at the same time the financial impacts have been severe

A prime example would be the situation in the Ivory Coast, a West African country that supplies the US with a full 50% of its cocoa, one-third of the world's totals. For years the government has delayed elections due to political unrest and violence. Voters ousted the strongman President Gbagbo at long last in 2009 but when he refused to acknowledge the election's winner it launched the country into yet another wave of civil unrest. In a final drastic measure to cut off income for the government, the country's exporters agreed to a self-imposed one month ban on cocoa exports that began last January and ended a few days ago in May..

The global impact of these events is predictable. Cocoa prices hit a 30 year high in 2009 and they spiked again when the export ban was announced. Since that time WAX ORCHARDS is paying double what we once payed for cocoa powder. Similarly, with the years of unrest in the Middle East and new conflicts roiling up every month, all of us have witnessed the steady increase in fuel prices. For WAX ORCHARDS that also means an increase in the costs we assume when we provide FREE SHIPPING on your orders of $28 or more.

How do we absorb these new, higher costs while keeping our retail prices the same all these years? Well, we'll never cost-cut our premium, high-quality ingredients!

What we can do is REDUCE the amount of packaging we use. We're streamlining the process, using less paper and buying less materials. We REUSE everything we can. Old boxes become packing materials, old bags are now trash can liners. And we've RENEWED our commitment to finding economical, sustainable practices.