Poor Farmer

UPDATE ~ Starbucks’ infamous video was brought down yesterday. The message on YouTube says: “This video has been removed by the user." Starbucks Senior VP Dub Hay said on the video that Ethiopia's coffee trademark attempts are illegal. Bob Winter of Arnold and Porter LLP responded, also on YouTube , saying that Hay's claim was totally absurd. The company never admitted its mistakes publicly except the comment on YouTube which read, “When we posted that video we felt the information was correct & since we've learned a lot & realized the information about the legality of the trademark was not accurate.” -------------- Starbucks Met Ethiopian Ambassador, No Agreement Again The Ethiopian Ambassador to Washington, Samuel Assefa was in Seattle yesterday to meet senior Starbucks' executives, it w as learned. Credible sources confirmed that the meeting between Starbucks and the Ambassador took place here in Seattle yesterday, April 3, but no specific agreeme...

Tarjei Kidd Olsen Inter Press Service News Agency April 3, 2007 OSLO, Norway (IPS) - Ethiopia is looking to trademark coffees in the EU to benefit its poor farmers, in the face of opposition from Starbucks in the U.S. The Ethiopian move provides lessons for an African market that could be worth billions of dollars. Coffee originated in Ethiopia today accounts for significant exports. Yet, in Ethiopian regions such as Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe, familiar names to coffee fans around the world, coffee farmers live in abject poverty. Most Ethiopians earn less than two dollars a day, and coffee farmers receive only a fraction of the price that their prestigious coffee fetches in cafés and shops in the developed world. The Ethiopian government filed applications in 2005 to trademark Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe as coffee brands in the European Union, Canada, Japan and the U.S. "Ethiopia wants more control over the distribution of fine coffee. Ultimately prices will get better,"...