Ashley Seager Friday January 19, 2007 The Guardian Starbucks, the US coffee giant, yesterday hit back at critics who have accused it of not doing enough to help coffee growers in poor countries. The group said it had sharply increased the average price it paid for its coffee last year. But it acknowledged it had not reached any agreement with Ethiopia over a trademark dispute which has prompted thousands of people around the world to write in protest to the company's chief executive, Jim Donald. Starbucks said it had raised the average price it paid for coffee in its fiscal year to last October to $1.42 (72p) a pound, 37% above the industry coffee price over the period and 11% more than it had paid in 2005. It also said it had doubled to 155m lbs the amount of coffee it bought through the independently verified coffee sourcing and purchasing guidelines known as CAFE. This type of coffee now accounts for 53% of all the company's coffee. The company's coffee bill was about $4...