Poor Farmer

Coffee Politics Stands Down Surprise! Oxfam announced today that Starbucks and Ethiopia signed an agreement and that it ended the campaign against Starbucks. The organization’s press release reads: "Starbucks and Ethiopia signed a distribution, marketing and licensing agreement today that ends their trademark dispute and brings them together in partnership to help Ethiopian coffee farmers. International relief and development agency Oxfam welcomes the agreement that has the potential to give farmers a fairer share of the profits for their world-renowned coffee brands, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe." I re-read the press releases issued by the parties involved including LYIP, Starbucks, Ethiopia, and Oxfam, but the vernacular is going over my head. For instance, what does “recognition of designations” and that the recognition includes “the license of certain trademarks” mean? All in all, I think the following two paragraphs hold the key to the agreement: “It provides a framewor...

The events scheduled for June 20, 2007 at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC and at the Ambassador’s residence are postponed. An electronic communication issued today by The Whitaker Group, a consultant to the Starbucks Coffee Company reads: “This is to inform you that the press event at the Ethiopian Embassy as well as the reception at the Ambassador’s residence, which were scheduled for this Wednesday, 20th June 2007, are postponed until later this summer due to scheduling difficulties.” On June 18, 2007, the Embassy invited unidentified number of people to attend a press event at the Embassy and a reception ceremony to celebrate what they called, “the ongoing collaboration between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the company in support of the Ethiopian coffee industry.” The long awaited licensing agreement deal is not mentioned in any of the announcements or invitations received by Coffee Politics. The postponement of the Embassy event and reception until an uns...

Senior representatives from Starbucks Corporation and the Ambassador of the government of Ethiopia to the US plan to announce on Wednesday June 20, 2007 what they called “the ongoing collaboration between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the company in support of the Ethiopian coffee industry” According to the Ambassador’s personal invitations sent to unidentified number of recipients, the announcement will be followed by a reception at the Ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC on the same day. The Reception Invitation reads: “His Excellency Dr. Samuel Assefa, Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the United States, cordially invites you to join him along with senior representatives from Starbucks Coffee Company at a reception celebrating the spirit of partnership between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the company in support of the Ethiopian coffee industry.” The invitations, copies of which have been received by Coffee Politics...

"They [the coffee farmers] were told that the price of coffee had dropped, even when it hadn't. The daily closing price of coffee was broadcast on national radio, but only 2 percent of 700,000 farmers had access to one. "Kettler hit upon the idea of bringing wind-up radios to farmers as a way to alleviate isolation of coffee co-ops, which often are made up of hundreds or thousands of farmers." I think this idea of providing Ethiopian coffee farmers with access to the radio waves should be a part of the implementation of the coffee trademark project. Unless the farmers are able to follow the price movement in the coffee market, they will continue to live at the mercy of the middlemen and exporters. Mr. Kettler's efforts need to be supported. What do you think? Send your ideas to me at poorfarmer@gmail.com ------------------ Aiding Growers: One Madison man sets out to link African coffee growers to the consumers DEBORAH ZIFF 608-252-6120 dziff@madison.com Madis...

Business Report June 12, 2007 London - Coffee prices hit the highest level for nine years here on Tuesday, lifted by concerns over insufficient supplies from Vietnam. On the LIFFE, London's futures exchange, Robusta prices leapt to $1 918 per tonne - a pinnacle not reached since 1998. The price of Robusta coffee has surged by almost 70 percent since the same stage last year, when it was worth just over $1 100. Prices have almost tripled in value since November 2004. Coffee prices in London have rocketed as investors fret over lower exports from Vietnam, which is the world's second biggest coffee producer. "Essentially Vietnam is the worry," said Denis Seudieu, chief economist at the London-based International Coffee Organisation (ICO). "Not only are supplies there struggling to keep up, but the coffee is of a poor quality and many batches have recently been rejected at European ports." The concerns have also buoyed the price of Arabica beans which are mainl...

After about eight months of blogging, postings 200 articles (about a quarter of which are either authored or commented by me), and reading thousands of WebPages, I decided to take on a more challenging role in the coffee industry. Since news about the dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks over the coffee trademarks broke out, I have spent several long nights reading about almost anything regarding the coffee industry (and intellectual property, and learned a great deal about both fields.) As I researched the root causes, and the subsequent handling, by both parties, of the trademark dispute, nothing surprised me most than the information gap that exists in the multi-billion dollar industry. Information exchange is so deficient in the coffee industry that most people at one end of the food chain do not have a clue about what is going on at the other end of the spectrum. Of course, there is no scarcity of information about coffee and related businesses on the internet. In fact, the info...

By Ron Day Bloomberg June 8, 2007 Coffee fell in New York after Brazil and Colombia sold beans to take advantage of a three-week rally. Futures had jumped 15 percent since May 1 to a three-month high on June 4. Brazil, the world's biggest coffee grower, and Colombia, the third-largest, are locking in prices after some sales by speculators, said George Saffadi, a trader with Olam Americas Inc. in White Plains, New York. ``Brazil and Colombia are coming to market,'' Saffadi said. ``They have coffee to sell and they are hedging.'' Coffee for July delivery fell 2 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $1.1495 a pound on the New York Board of Trade at 12:24 p.m. Colombia, which is harvesting its smaller mid-crop, is boosting production to meet increased demand from former Soviet Union countries as Brazil's output declines. Brazil's production dropped in the current season after trees entered the slower half of a two-year cycle and dry weather hindered flowering. Vietnam is t...