What makes us buy one brand over another? Is it the taste? Packaging? Or maybe the marketing.

But do you ever consider where your chocolate comes from and how much the person who produced it was paid?

The Day Chocolate Company wants us to. It produces fair trade chocolate, where the growers who produce the cocoa beans are paid a fair price for their product.

And with Fairtrade Fortnight starting on 4 March, the Day Chocolate Company - which is part-owned by a Ghanaian farmers co-operative - wants us to choose chocolate with a conscience.

Better deal

Chocolate is big business - the UK market is worth �3.6bn a year.

But the cocoa farmers who produce the beans don't see much of that money.

We ensure that their beans are weighed fairly, that they are paid promptly and that they are offered credit facilities if they are in difficulty

Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase Co-op boss

That's why nine years ago a small group of Ghanaian growers got together to fight for a better deal.

They formed a co-operative to collect and sell cocoa for the farmers' benefit.

They called it Kuapa Kokoo, which means "good cocoa farmers" in Twi, the local language. And 35,000 growers are now members.

According to Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase, the co-op's managing director, it has significantly improved its members' lives.

Kwabena: Farmers' lives have improved

"We aim to help cocoa farmers organise their trading and empower them," he says.

"We ensure that their beans are weighed fairly, that they are paid promptly and that they are offered credit facilities if they are in difficulty."

But even with the backing of the co-op, a cocoa farmer still earns just �300 a year for their cocoa bean crop.

The farmers realised they had to do more than just grow the beans. They needed to make the chocolate, too.

Cash bonuses

So they now part-own the Day Chocolate Company, which makes bars under the brand names Divine and Dubble.

The farmers own a share of the company

Profits from the business are given back to the farmers in the form of cash bonuses and development grants for water wells and schools.

This is all well and good. But the chocolate's ethical credentials don't automatically guarantee it space on your local supermarket shelf.

Fairtrade products are often pricier than other brands, and the Day Chocolate Company is competing against some of the world's biggest corporate giants.

But the company's boss, Sophi Tranchell, reckons there's room for everyone.

Small proportion

"If fair trade products can capture even a small proportion of that market, producers in developing countries gain real benefits," she says.

One of the first stores to stock Divine was the Co-op - itself an organisation which works for the benefits of its members.

The Co-op's Terry Hudghton says that in a fairly static market, Divine has been a big hit.

"Co-op chocolate sales are about 5% up, but Co-op fair trade sales are 95% up," he says. "That's absolutely wonderful."

Ironically very few Ghanaian cocoa growers have even tasted chocolate.

But the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative is hoping our love of chocolate will improve their future.

"We all have to go shopping," says managing director Kwabena.

"Fair trade is just going shopping with a bit of respect."

Just imagine growing cocoa beans in Ghana.

The price you get for your beans depends on what is happening in countries thousands of miles away.

If everyone is feeling well-off, they buy great big Easter eggs, enormous chocolate rabbits and suddenly people want your beans more than ever so the price goes up.

Prices are now guaranteed

If things are bad, they just buy mini-eggs to cheer themselves up. It's hard being at the mercy of a faraway market.

It's even harder when big businesses are trying to buy cocoa beans at the lowest possible prices, so growers around the world are undercutting each other to sell their output.

Being a small cog in a global economy is very, very tough.

Divine chocolate tries to create a better situation for the cocoa bean producers, while running an effective business in the developed world.

This is how it helps: