Poor Farmer

By Jason Simpkins Money Morning August 30, 2007 First it was the cost of a tank-full of gas for your Mercedes SUV. Then it was interest rate on your home-refi loan. But when they messed with your morning ritual – and boosted the price of your the cost of your morning latte, well, that was taking things just too damned far. Coffee-king Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX ) recently boosted its prices by nine cents a beverage. It was the second price increase in 10 months and has boosted the price tag of an already pricey Starbucks morning brew by about 14 cents. The prior price hike – tacked on last October – adjusted for higher labor and energy costs, while the most recent addition to prices was attributed to the big spike in the price of milk, a key component of such Starbuck mainstays as lattes. Milk prices have soared in response to – of all seemingly unrelated factors – a big uptick in the production of ethanol, a gasoline substitute that counts corn as one of its key ingredients. Well, ...

By Alexis Okeowo, Kampala Inter Press Service (Johannesburg) Via All Africa August 29, 2007 Coffee producers in Uganda suffer from an unfair trade relationship with Europe, even though their beans produce some of the best quality coffee in the world, says the Ugandan coffee industry's governing body. "The biggest loser is the person directly involved in coffee bean production," says Henry Ngabirano, director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. Moreover, Ugandan producers get an "unequal share of the revenue generated by coffee beans". Combined, Ugandan growers and exporters receive 6 percent of the finished product's price, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. "This shows what level of exploitation there is," Ngabirano says. Coffee beans are Uganda's top cash crop and their production accounts for nearly half of the nation's economy. The country has become a leading Robusta producer since the political crisis erupt...

EQUAL Exchange, the Edinburgh-based Fairtrade and organic food pioneer, is to be the first licensed distributor for speciality Ethiopian coffee in the UK under a new trading deal set to benefit the world's poorest farmers. Newly established trademarks on speciality Ethiopian coffees, which have sparked controversy in the United States and were originally contested by Starbucks, mean that from September only licensed distributors will be able to sell certain coffees in the UK. And Equal's Yirgacheffe ground coffee will become the first to be licensed under the Ethiopian Coffee and Trademarking Initiative on September 5. While the initiative is unlikely to boost Equal's bottom line to any significant extent, managing director Andy Good said he was proud to be in the scheme. "It's a big breakthrough for a developing country to use international trade rules, which often work against poor producers, to benefit small-scale farmers. "The trademark agreements allow th...

Groundbreaking Trade Agreement for Ethiopian Coffee Farmers Launches in the UK Press Release from Equal Exchange August 27, 2007 A unique trading agreement that will benefit some of the world’s poorest farmers launches in the UK on 5 September 2007. Newly established trademarks on speciality Ethiopian coffees, which have previously sparked controversy in the USA, mean that from September only officially licensed distributors will be able to sell certain coffees in the UK. Fairtrade food pioneers Equal Exchange will be the first company to become licensed distributors when their Fairtrade and Organic Yirgacheffe Ground Coffee is included under the Ethiopian Coffee and Trademarking Initiative. The company will sign the licensing agreement at a ceremony at the Ethiopian Embassy on 5 September 2007. The Trademarking Initiative, that was originally contested by Starbucks and has been a focus of an international campaign by Oxfam, is a collaboration between Ethiopia’s government, coffee ex...

After this article was published on Addis Fortune, an Ethiopian weekly paper, I received an angry response from Light Years IP, the NGO advising Ethiopia on the coffee trademark project, warning me that I would damage my reputation if I continued to publish my "mistaken" opinions. The email did not identify my mistakes. More coming soon. -------------- Why did Ethiopia sign an agreement critics say is favoring Starbucks? Wondwossen Mezlekia, an Ethiopian working and living in Seattle, Washington - where Starbucks is also headquartered - has been following the trademark dispute through his well-read blog, www.poorfarmer.blogspot.com. In his contribution to a series of articles that appeared on this newspaper, Wondwossen sheds some light on the issue. Ethiopia's Loss in the Starbucks Affair Addis Fortune Ethiopia, one of the ancient civilisations in the world, collided with a symbol of globalisation and, to some extent, challenged the status-quo without success. The outcom...

Now Starbucks Puts its Coffee Beans on to Supermarket Shelves By Ian Herbert The Independent Published: 15 August 2007 If proof was really needed that Starbucks is taking over the world, then it has just arrived at the Edinburgh Fringe in the form of The Two Closest Starbucks in Britain, a show in which the comedian Owen Powell, with the aid of a pedometer, reveals his mission to find the two branches of the chain that are nearest to each other in the UK. There are precisely 108 steps, Powell reveals, between the two branches in Villiers Street, just off the Strand in London, though that is nowhere near the closest. You need to visit the show to find out which are. The apparently irresistible growth of a corporation that began life as coffee joint run by three mildly hippie coffee enthusiasts in Pike Place Market, Seattle, in 1971, showed no signs of relenting yesterday when it declared its intention to go into battle with its brand in the supermarkets. The Starbucks consumer products...

The recent agreement between the Government of Ethiopia and Starbucks is, unfortunately, breeding more questions than answers, the main reason being the parties’ choice to keep the settlement of the long-fought trademark dispute secret. Senior government officials who signed the agreement on behalf of Ethiopia's coffee sector cite a confidentiality agreement they have signed with Starbucks as an excuse for not disclosing the details. Dr. Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the US and Getachew Mengistie, Director of Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) have, however, shared some of the major elements of the agreement which are not bound by the confidentiality agreement during this interview. During the interview, they hinted that one of the major benefits the agreement brings for Ethiopia is that the country’s common law rights to the trademarks, Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe are recognized where the law applies. To find out what comfort such common law rights provide...

Synopsis of the case of Ethiopia’s battle against Starbucks over trademarks “For every cup of Ethiopian coffee Starbucks sells, Ethiopian farmers earn 3¢. Tell Starbucks: Honor your commitments to coffee farmers.” – Oxfam, October, 2006 "Ethiopia salutes Starbucks for its exemplary display of global corporate citizenship." - Dr. Samuel Assefa, the Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States, June 20, 2007 “We don’t have any additional information to provide beyond what Ambassador Samuel Assefa and Getachew Mengistie already shared.” – Stacey Krum, Starbucks Global Brand Communication, August 3, 2007 The trademark dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks has ended with a bizarre and mysterious accord. Ethiopia, one of the ancient civilizations in the world, collided with a symbol of globalization and, to some extent, challenged the status-quo without success. The outcome should serve third-world countries as a reminder of the harsh reality that they have far go to get control o...

I received the following message from Getachew Mengistie, Director of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) shortly after I published this interview with the government’s officials: Dear Wondwossen, Thank you very much for sending me the script.* I have found that some of the answers are incomplete or wrong. This may be due to poor communication.** I would thus like to give clarifications below and kindly ask you to make the necessary corrections in the blog. I really appreciate the excellent work that you have been doing in promoting the initiative. With warmest regards I think the remarks are too snappish for the clarifications offered because, in my view, the clarifications did not have substantial impacts on the contents. For the sake of clarity I have reposted the questioned Q & A’s followed by the clarification and my comments. * Since this blog is blocked in Ethiopia, as are many others, I had to include a copy of the transcript/posting in the body of my email t...