Poor Farmer

By Wondwossen Mezlekia Ethiopia is mentioned many times in Starbucks’ dictionary than in the Bible (where it is cited over 38 times by both Old and New Testaments.) Until recently, company websites and the tiny blackboards hanging in the stores used to rightly feature Ethiopia as the origin of coffee. Lately, however, the company’s coffee education web pages appear to be receding and incoherently abandoning any reference to Ethiopia. Starbucks’ love affair with the name Ethiopia seems to have come to a halt with the origin of coffee renamed as a broader region in the continent. Today, there are three versions of coffee history adapted by Starbucks’ English language websites. The website for North America looks at the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea as the source of coffee: “The first coffee plants are said to have come from the Horn of Africa on the shores of the Red Sea. Originally, coffee beans were taken as a food and not as a beverage. East African tribes would grind the coffee cher...

On January 12, 2007, immediately following this public announcement published on Coffee Politics regarding the opening of Black Gold movie in Los Angeles , Starbucks issued what it calls a rumor response and accused Black Gold for not representing Starbucks' side ofthe story. Starbucks said, "the film incompletely represents the work Starbucks is doing to address this issue. " Today, Black Gold responded with a strong Press Release. Following is the full text of the release: PRESS STATEMENT, LONDON, January 13th 2007 For Immediate Use STARBUCKS REACTS TO LOS ANGELES OPENING OF CONTROVERSIAL COFFEE FILM BLACK GOLD The $6 billion coffee giant Starbucks accused the Black Gold filmmakers of “incompletely” representing the work of the company, as the critically-acclaimed film opened in Los Angeles last night. Black Gold is the first feature-length documentary to be made about the $80 billion global coffee industry. The company was so concerned by the impact of the film, th...

Black Gold , the famous documentary movie on (Un-) Fair Trade screens in Los Angeles tonight, Friday, January 12, 2007. Venue Laemmle Grande 4-Plex 3 45 S. Figueroa St. Downtown Los Angeles Show times Friday Jan 12: 5:30pm 7:40pm 9:45pm Saturday Jan 13: 1:10pm 3:20pm 5:30pm 7:40pm 9:45pm Sunday Jan 14: 1:10pm 3:20pm 5:30pm 7:40pm 9:45pm For screening dates in other cities, click here . You can also read reviews here . Read this commentary written following the film's screening in Seattle.

Recommendations on empowering individual coffee farmers as stakeholders Looking ahead, the success of the coffee Intellectual Property (IP) protection project as a development tool highly depends on the effectiveness of the project's implementation. Unless the project, which is striving to go through the phases of building and capturing values associated with Ethiopia’s coffee brands, directly benefits individual coffee farmers , it bears the risk of perpetuating the unfair trade practices where only the middlemen take the lion’s share of the higher prices to be realized over time. On paper, the stated objective of the government’s trade marking and licensing project is to enhance and manage the rights associated with the country’s coffee marks “for the benefit of, and in collaboration with, up to 4 million Ethiopians engaged in the production and supply of coffees covered by the marks as represented by farmer cooperatives and other organized stakeholders in the Ethiopian coffee se...

As reported in this commentary, Ethiopia wants to achieve recognition for its trademark rights through either voluntary acceptance or federal registrations. [New comers to the story, visit The Dispute at a Glance on the side bar of this page.] The voluntary acceptance of Ethiopia’s trademark rights calls for Starbucks and other coffee importers to first acknowledge the country’s ownership of the coffee names Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe and then sign a Licensing Agreement. This is the least expensive option for a poor country as Ethiopia. Despite the high hopes by many that international corporations who have been advertising themselves as development partners for such countries as Ethiopia would cheer the voluntary Licensing Agreement, this option faced a blow when Starbucks, the world’s coffee giant, opposed to it. Starbucks’ opposition came as a surprise as it does not equate with what the company claims to have stood for. This triggered a public call by Oxfam and over 90,000 cons...

Lessons learned and challenges of the future Intellectual Property (IP) assets such as technological know-how, patents, trademarks, brand names and copyrights increasingly make up the majority of the profits from international trade. Developed countries protect and strategically exploit their IP assets but utilization of IP as a tool of economic development is a new experience for developing countries, especially in Africa. The patent laws in these countries, if any, have been limited to fulfilling the purposes of registering trademarks and issuing licenses. Despite the rich culture and immense potential of natural wealth the country is blessed with, Ethiopia too had lagged behind in identifying and making use of its IP assets. Paradoxically, Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. In this context, the recent ambitious plan by Ethiopia to identify and protect the country’s untapped patent assets is dramatic. The initiative to protect the patent rights associated with cof...

Update Nicholas Sho of Murky Coffee recently met with Gatachew Mengistie, Director General of Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office , in a casual setting, to discuss the Ethiopian coffee names issue that has been escalated to a public dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks. Listen to the podcast in MP3 format, 44 MB The 1 hour 35 minutes and 56 seconds long podacst is also found here . See below for more information and how to subscribe or download. Choose a format: AAC XML feed MP3 XML feed Click here to go to the Portafilter Podcast on iTunes Music Store. MAC OS users, click HERE (for a one-click to subscribe in iTunes) To Download the Podcast Choose your format (AAC or MP3) WIN: right-click and "Save As" OSX: Ctrl-Click and select "Download" My special thanks go to Nicholas Sho for kindly allowing us to share his experience with the wider readers. Coming up: In-depth analysis of Ethiopia's IP strategy