Poor Farmer

In an earlier report, “ Ethiopian coffee trademark dispute may leave Starbucks with nasty taste ,” by Madeleine Acey, Douglas Holt. the L’Oréal Professor of Marketing at Oxford, was quoted as saying: “In their rash attempt to shut down Ethiopia’s applications, Starbucks have placed the Starbucks brand in significant peril. Starbucks customers will be shocked by the disconnect between their current perceptions of Starbucks’ ethics and the company’s actions against Ethiopia.” Starbucks is accused of working with its industry lobbyists to block Ethiopia’s efforts to control ownership of the country’s most valuable coffee brands. According to Oxfam, the Ethiopian growers selling to Starbucks earned between 75 cents and $1.60 a pound on beans that Starbucks sold at up to $26 a pound. Over 90,000 petitioners responded to Oxfam’s call to ask Starbucks to honor its commitments to the Ethiopian coffee farmers. According to today’s report on the Seattle Times, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz...

Interesting news where Dub Hay claims that higher quality coffee is the way to increase farmers' incomes. But many already produce high quality coffee and what Starbucks pays them does not even cover the cost of production. Starbucks sells Ethiopia's finest coffees for as high as $26/ lp but the farmers earn around $1.28/lp. Starbucks in African coffee moves BBC Starbucks plans to double purchases of East African coffee in the next two years and increase credit to farmers in the region to improve bean quality. Starbucks' Dub Hay said they would also set up a Farmers Support Centre, and have pledged to offer $1m in micro finance to farmers in the region. Starbucks bought $294m of coffee last year and 6% was from Africa. Mr Hay says that will double to 12% by 2009. Starbucks has been in a trademark row with Ethiopia over the past few months. Meetings The Ethiopian Government wants to trademark three of its coffees in America - Sidamo , Harar and Yirgacheffe names. Charity...

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) reported that a historic coffee sector meeting took place on February 14, 2006 in Addis Ababa. As described below, the meeting was an important step forward. The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO), spearheading the Ethiopian Trademarking and Licensing Initiative, convened the first session between Ethiopian stakeholders - cooperatives, exporters and government bodies. Participants include US and Canadian specialty coffee businesses who have acknowledged Ethiopia’s right to Trademark three of Ethiopia’s most appreciated coffees, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. The group laid the groundwork for a new type of commercial North-South collaboration – a Network of Licensed Distributors working directly with the coffee stakeholders in Ethiopia. "We are grateful to all the companies that have come forward and wish to start dialogue with us and be part of our new network of licensed distributors. The widening political support for ...