Poor Farmer

By Carlos Caminada Bloomberg June 1, 2007 Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, will give arabica growers a subsidy of as much as 40 reais ($21) a bag after a rally in the local currency eroded export profits. The government will guarantee that growers receive 300 reais per 60-kilogram bag of arabica coffee, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. Brazil will hold auctions twice a month between growers and buyers and plans to subsidize as many as 5 million bags through the end of the harvest in October. Brazil's offer to support prices, its first since 2002, comes one day after Colombia, the world's second-biggest arabica producer, said it would aid farmers to counter a currency rally. Colombia's peso and Brazil's real are the world's best- performing currencies against the dollar in the past six months. ``Producer profits are really narrow because of the exchange rate,'' said Joao Antonio Lian, head of Sumatra Cafes Brasil, Brazil's thi...

ABC News Online May 31, 2007 A coffee grower from Mareeba, in far north Queensland, says she has secured the rights to bring the first naturally caffeine-free coffee trees to Australia. Currently caffeine has to be removed from coffee beans through a chemical process which affects the taste of the finished product. Linda Jacques has just returned from Brazil where she met the scientists who discovered caffeine-free plants in Ethiopia. She says she will be the first to bring the variety to Australia once it is cross-bred with a higher yielding strain and she is sure there will be a market. "There is a growing demand ... about 10 per cent of the world's coffee production ... they are using decaffeinated coffee at the moment," she said. ---------- Past news item on the discovery ---------- Naturally decaffeinated coffee plant discovered NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan June 23, 2004 A naturally decaffeinated coffee plant has been discovered. Coffee from the new str...

By Chris Mercer Beverage Daily May 29, 2007 Coffee processors and producers will have to wait another year for a new International Coffee Agreement after talks over the last week failed to make a breakthrough. Arguments and a lack of common ground between delegates from several countries are understood to have blighted discussions at the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) headquarters in London. It means the current Agreement will be extended for another year, putting back potentially important reforms that could help the coffee sector to address issues of sustainability, trade and emerging market consumption. An EU official told BeverageDaily.com in February that the end of May deadline for agreeing a new deal looked "too optimistic". Nestor Osorio, ICO executive director, had repeatedly insisted that talks were on track to replace the current agreement, which should have run out in September. On Friday, he admitted defeat. ICO members, which include the EU, US and m...

The negotiation between Starbucks and Ethiopia’s attorneys is continuing though at a slower pace. Starbucks is represented by its external lawyers – not by the company’s in house consul. That, in part, explains the reasons for their feet dragging, I think. Not many details are available from either side at the moment. It seems as though confidentiality is one of the preconditions for the negotiation. From the information I was able to gather, however, the outcome of the negotiation might be something different from what has been at the center of the public dispute. The two sides are apparently playing a give-take game. Starbucks is willing to recognize Ethiopia’s common Trade Mark rights but does not want to support its rights to administrative Trademark rights. Meaning, the company would not support Ethiopia’s application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the marks, Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe. It looks like Ethiopia’s side is prepared to accept that comp...

By Joseph Olanyo The Monitor May 22, 2007 Ethiopia’s case should be treated as an eye opener for Uganda that intends to do business with Starbucks When Paul Sempa-Mugambwa, former proprietor of Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd, received an offer for his firm way back in 1992 from a foreign investor, it did not look like an impending end to a whole generation of local coffee processing entrepreneurs. It was however only a matter of time before most of the indigenous coffee entrepreneurs gave in to pressure to sell their plants to cash draped foreign investors who, unknown to local entrepreneurs, had discovered a new niche in the international coffee market. Thus the unprecedented visit recently by officials from one of the largest global suppliers of specialty coffee - Starbucks Coffee Co. could hardly be a coincidence, according to analysts. "They want to start buying coffee from this region and they are looking at Uganda as part of a good quality coffee source," a coffee entrepreneur w...

Khat or Chat is a narcotic plant banned in the United States and most European counties. “Khat’s main psychoactive ingredients are cathinone, which is almost chemically identical to amphetamine, and the milder cathine (norpseudoephedrine). Cathinone prompts the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine, bringing lucidity, heightened alertness and euphoria.” - Niren Tolsi A growing demand for the leaf both locally and in neighboring countries is fuelling the business. The number of Ethiopian youths chewing khat has exponentially increased in the last two decades. As if to complement the need for more supply, the coffee crisis (1997-2003) led some coffee farmers to resort to growing khat. ----------- Keeping cool as a khat Niren Tolsi Mail & Guardian May 19, 2007 The buzz of an electric haircutter accompanies the comings and goings in one of downtown Durban’s derelict buildings. Men, mainly Ethiopian, come in for a haircut, others, to poke their heads through a door in the...

In a joint statement with Ethiopia, Starbucks announced earlier this month that they have agreed in principle to sign a licensing agreement. That was a big u-turn on the company’s position regarding Ethiopia’s efforts to trademark its famous coffee marks, Harar , Sidamo , and Yirgacheffe . Many people welcomed the decision though with optimism. At the moment, I was not sure what they meant by "agree in principle;" now, I am more eager to read a copy of the signed agreement. The company, seems to be busy spending more on the future. Understandably, the management wants to leave this story behind at any cost and move on. The discomfiture that other multinational companies, such as Nike, had faced in the past, after giving in to high-profile disputes, is the last ditch one would be willing to do what it takes and get over it. Albeit, typical of corporate giants, Starbucks is not going to spend a penny without a guaranteed stream of inflow of benefits to equate the associate...