Poor Farmer

Douglas B. Holt* 26 January 2007 The Starbucks Corporation is working with its lobbying group, the National Coffee Association (NCA), to block efforts by a coalition of Ethiopian coffee producers to secure US trademarks on two of Ethiopia’s most valuable coffee brands—Sidamo and Harrar. [1] Ethiopia’s coffee coalition wants to own the trademarks in order to increase profits on these brands, which could substantially raise the incomes of the estimated 6 million Ethiopians who are dependent on the fine coffee trade. The coalition has successfully registered the trademarks for Sidamo, Harrar and Yirgacheffe in other important markets including the EU and Canada. The coalition was able to get Yirgacheffe approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) before Starbucks and the NCA had time to act. Following the approval of Yirgacheffe, the NCA filed Letters of Protest—legal documents exceeding 400 pages—against the registration of both Sidamo and Harrar. On the basis of this protest...

This week, Coffee Politics highlighted information suggesting as though a meeting between Starbucks experts, NCA, Ethiopian government officials, and representatives of cooperatives was going to be held in Geneva. The information was based on this report which has now proved to be inaccurate as it was based on an outdated statement. Though there was an idea suggested by Starbucks in December 2006 to hold a meeting in Geneva, there is no such plan at the moment.

A must-read analysis by Oxford Marketing Professor, Douglas B. Holt (Originally posted here with permission from the author on Nov 17, 2006) On this page, also read the following: Ethiopia presents an early test to Starbucks’ 2007 growth strategies   Storm in a coffee cup: Starbucks defends itself over Oxfam campaign   Feel Good: Only 94% of Our Coffee is Unfairly Traded The Unfortunate Trio Blend: Starbucks, Black Gold, Ethiopia   Brand Hypocrisy at Starbucks by Douglas B. Holt Download this article here (PDF). Efforts by the Ethiopian coffee sector to trademark Ethiopia’s most valuable coffee brands have come to a screeching halt, courtesy of The Starbucks Corporation. The coffee sector is pursuing trademarks in all major international markets on Sidamo, Yirgecheffe, and Harrar so that they can then apply sound marketing techniques to increase the commercial value of these brands. The goal is to significantly raise the incomes of many of the 15 millio...