Poor Farmer

Starbucks calls its coffee worker-friendly -- but in Ethiopia, a day's pay is a dollar By Tom Knudson - Bee Staff Writer Sacramento Bee September 23, 2007 Ethiopians cross a concrete footbridge financed by Starbucks in the coffee-producing Sidamo region. "If we are paid a (coffee) price which is decent, the people can make the bridge on their own," said Tadesse Meskela, a farmers cooperative manager. Photo & article: Courtesy of Sacramento Bee /Tom Knudson GEMADRO, Ethiopia -- Tucked inside a fancy black box, the $26-a-pound Starbucks Black Apron Exclusives coffee promised to be more than just another bag of beans. Not only was the premium coffee from a remote plantation in Ethiopia "rare, exotic, cherished," according to Starbucks advertising, it was grown in ways that were good for the environment -- and for local people, too. Companies routinely boast about what they're doing for the planet, in part because guilt-ridden consumers expect as much -- an...

By Tia Goldenberg Monsters and Critics Sep 22, 2007 Addis Ababa - In one of Addis Ababa's bustling and noisy coffee shops, where cups are clinking and the bubbling sound of a cappuccino machine undertones conversations, Ethiopians, who claim they live in the birthplace of java, while away a weekend morning. Bamlak Getachew sits at an outdoor table at Kaldi's Coffee, sipping an espresso with a friend. 'Coffee is very important to me. I love it. I can drink it anytime but I must drink one in the morning,' she said, cradling the small green mug in her hands. And now, Ethiopia is showing its citizens there is more to coffee than just its robust, mild or medium taste. A precedent-setting deal with coffee giant Starbucks this year was the most renowned Addis Ababa has had in a push to promote the names of its coffee growing regions worldwide. Hopes are high that this strategy will increase the coffee's value and hopefully bring a much needed increase in income to its poor...

Business Digest The Seattle Times September 20, 2007 Starbucks was sued for allegedly infringing another company's patented design for a nonelectric coffee maker. Bodum USA, based in New York, accused Seattle-based Starbucks of copying its silver-domed glass carafe design and selling the copy as its own "Anniversary Press" coffee maker. Both products are available in the U.S., according to the complaint filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago. The suit seeks more than $10 million in damages. "Starbucks has sold Bodum's coffee makers for at least 20 years in its stores and, therefore, is well aware of Bodum's trade dress and celebrity," attorney David Bennett wrote in the complaint, referring to the look and reputation of the company's products. Starbucks spokesman Brandon Borrman said the company wasn't aware of the complaint and couldn't immediately comment.

"Starbucks — which already features specialty coffees from Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia, and also buys green coffee beans from Tanzania and now Uganda — announced in February that it plans to double its imports from Africa by 2009." "The farmers on Mount Elgon have no idea of why coffee is so expensive in the West." - TIME ----------- Starbucks Gives Uganda a Java Jolt By Alexis Okeowo Time/CNN September 12, 2007 Looking for Starbucks coffee in the rural Ugandan town of Mbale? You'll find it up a winding, red-dirt road on the vast slopes of Mount Elgon. It's not in paper cups; in fact, it's not yet brewed or even roasted. But hundreds of farmers in this patch of East African countryside are now growing premium coffee beans, having sold their first crop to the U.S.-based chain earlier this year. And, although the Uganda Coffee Development Authority estimates that less than 1% of the price paid for a cup of African coffee in the West actually reaches the lo...

VERBATIM (indirect responses by the LYIP and the Government to this report and other views) Corrections to Misinformation “Contrary to the concerns being expressed recently, in no country where applications have been made to register a TM, has Ethiopia yet run out of options to rebut or reverse a decision of the prevailing authority or Patent and Trade Mark Office. “We realize that the public who stepped up to support us around the world, may remain concerned about whether Ethiopia has managed to achieve what it hoped for in the negotiations with Starbucks that were concluded on June 20th, 2007. We wish to confirm that it did. Other assertions are untrue and based only on mere speculation. “Furthermore, Ethiopia neither conceded nor altered the fundamental principles and objectives of the Initiative and considers the agreement with Starbucks as not only satisfactory in its own right, but also an important trigger, stimulating many other companies, that had stood back, to now come forwa...

Brian Adero. Nairobi East African Standard via All Africa September 13, 2007 The World Bank's private sector lending arm has set aside Sh14m to train Kenyan farmers on how to produce specialty coffees. Once local liquorers are certified as specialty graders, farmers will be better placed to market their coffee directly to specialty roasters. Speaking during the opening of a training programme sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Dr Peter K Michori, chairman Coffee Board of Kenya, said the inaugural sales of specialty coffee will be launched in early February, next year. The five-day course ends on Saturday. Quality Institute will test and certify qualified cuppers as Q-graders during the second training session in November. The course has attracted 20 chief and senior liquorers from commercial marketing agents and dealers. Michori says that Kenyan coffee enjoys a competitive edge due to its high quality, despite making up only one per cent of the world's c...

Starbucks shuns Ethiopian Trading Markets September 10, 2007 Kigali, Sep 10, 2007 (Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) – Coffee may be selling internationally at less than $30 a kilo but a recent competition in Rwanda has rated the local brands at a record $55 for the same quantity, RNA reports. Last week in Kigali, there was The Golden Cup competition - the most esteemed prize where Rwanda's best coffees were auctioned to international buyers. Coffee from the north region based SDL Muyongwe washing station in Gakenke District earned the highest honor. The next day this coffee was sold for over US$55 a kilogram to American companies Intelligentsia Coffee and Stumptown Coffee. There were 10 stations that presented their coffees but four sold well above the $30 per kilo international price. The coffees came mainly from the weather friendly regions of the country - north, West and some parts of the south. Though the other six sold ...

You are invited for a Fair Trade Fiesta at the Chicago Funky Buddha Lounge as top-notch Fair Trade community organizers toast to Hope, Empowerment, Human Dignity, and Lasting Change. Proceeds go towards expanding an Ethiopian school in a coffee growing community, while at the same time expanding the global Fair Trade coffee market in Chicago. Readers, please read more and support by donating at www.chicagofairtrade.org . Host: Jane and Mary Anichini, Shayna Harris, and Chicago Fair Trade! Location: Funky Buddha Lounge 728 W. Grand Ave., Chicago, IL US When: Friday, September 21, 7:00PM The evening will include 7:00 p.m. - Black Gold Film Screening, Raffle, Appetizers 8:00 - 11:00 p.m. - Music & Dancing ::: Live Band @ Butterfly Cafe ::: and DJ in VIP lounge All you can drink 7:00 - 10:00 p.m., Organic Wine, Beer and Fair Trade cocktails ~ Stay and DANCE! Entry: $35 donation per person. Entry Includes all night entry to the Funky Buddha Lounge, open till 2:00 a.m. Li...

By Frank Jack Daniel Reuters September 7, 2007 Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz on Friday predicted a shortage of gourmet coffee beans as coffee drinkers across the globe develop more sophisticated tastes. Whilst its competitors will struggle of find the gourmet beans they need, a decade of buying from top end coffee growers means the global coffee chain has ample supplies for the future, the Starbucks founder told Reuters in an interview. "At the very top of the market where Starbucks plays, I do not believe that others will have access to the quality of coffee that we are buying because we have secured those sources," Schultz said. Speaking on a trip to Mexico City to mark five years since opening the first store here, Schultz said Starbucks buyers traveled 300 days a year nurturing contacts with farmers, finding new growing regions and training suppliers to produce better coffee. "At certain points in the future, the work that we have done over the last ten years to ...

Reuters September 4, 2007 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote , Profile , Research ), the world's biggest coffee-shop chain, said it planned to source coffee from China for the first time as it expands in a country with more than 5,000 years of tea-drinking culture. Starbucks has been working with coffee farmers in China's southwestern Yunnan province to help them meet sourcing standards and has sent coffee shipments to the United States for testing, Starbucks China President Wang Jinlong said at the Reuters China Century Summit on Tuesday. "China does produce some quality coffee," Wang said at the summit, held at the Reuters office in Shanghai. He added that sourcing coffee from China would start "very soon, maybe in a couple of years". Some analysts say import tariffs as high as 20 to 60 percent are the reason why companies such as Starbucks are considering sourcing coffee from China. However, Starbucks' Shanghai-based spokeswoman, Caren...