Starbucks Reacts to the LA Opening of Black Gold

On January 12, 2007, immediately following this public announcement published on Coffee Politics regarding the opening of Black Gold movie in Los Angeles , Starbucks issued what it calls a rumor response and accused Black Gold for not representing Starbucks' side ofthe story.

Starbucks said, "the film incompletely represents the work Starbucks is doing to address this issue. "

Today, Black Gold responded with a strong Press Release. Following is the full text of the release:


PRESS STATEMENT, LONDON, January 13th 2007
For Immediate Use

STARBUCKS REACTS TO LOS ANGELES OPENING OF CONTROVERSIAL COFFEE FILM BLACK GOLD

The $6 billion coffee giant Starbucks accused the Black Gold filmmakers of “incompletely” representing the work of the company, as the critically-acclaimed film opened in Los Angeles last night.

Black Gold is the first feature-length documentary to be made about the $80 billion global coffee industry.

The company was so concerned by the impact of the film, that they posted a statement on their website urging customers to "feel good about drinking Starbucks coffee.”

The company also defended the price it pays to coffee farmers stating that "in fiscal year 2005, we paid 23 percent above the coffee commodity price."

In response to the Starbucks statement, the filmmakers of Black Gold, Nick Francis and Marc Francis said: “We are surprised that Starbucks have gone out to discredit the film again. This is not a film specifically about Starbucks, it's a film about the winners and losers in the global coffee industry and it shows the daily reality for millions of coffee farmers."

"We spent six months during the production trying to persuade Starbucks to participate in the film to give them the opportunity to explain how they buy their coffee and how they work in Ethiopia, but they declined our invitation."

In a subsequent meeting with five senior Starbucks executives at their Seattle headquarters, we asked them to tell us the exact price they pay farmers for a pound of coffee - but they refused to disclose this.

"This new statement by Starbucks follows other statements that the company has issued about Black Gold since its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. One newspaper covering the film's premiere commented that Starbucks mounted “a charm offensive” encouraging journalists to interview company representatives about its practices in Ethiopia.

Ahead of the UK premiere at the London Film Festival, Starbucks issued a statement to all its employees and to the media accusing the film of being “inaccurate" and "incomplete”

The Ethiopian government has different view of the film. HE Kassahun Ayele, former Ambassador to Washington DC, and now ambassador to Germany, said: “The timely film “Black Gold”, is living witness to the exploitation of coffee farmers in Ethiopia. It shows the need for Ethiopia and others to play a bigger role in the export of their finest products.”

Oxfam America’s Abera Tola added: “Ethiopia's farmers produce some of the finest and most sought after coffees in the world—including coffees that have been sold under Starbucks' Black Apron Exclusives line for up to $26 a pound—but receive only 5 to 10 percent of the retail price.”

Towards the end of last year, Starbucks CEO Jim Donald flew to Ethiopia to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi after the company was accused of blocking Ethiopia's attempt to trademark its famous coffee names which could earn country over $80 million dollars a year.