Poor Farmer

Brian Adero. Nairobi East African Standard via All Africa September 13, 2007 The World Bank's private sector lending arm has set aside Sh14m to train Kenyan farmers on how to produce specialty coffees. Once local liquorers are certified as specialty graders, farmers will be better placed to market their coffee directly to specialty roasters. Speaking during the opening of a training programme sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Dr Peter K Michori, chairman Coffee Board of Kenya, said the inaugural sales of specialty coffee will be launched in early February, next year. The five-day course ends on Saturday. Quality Institute will test and certify qualified cuppers as Q-graders during the second training session in November. The course has attracted 20 chief and senior liquorers from commercial marketing agents and dealers. Michori says that Kenyan coffee enjoys a competitive edge due to its high quality, despite making up only one per cent of the world's c...

Starbucks shuns Ethiopian Trading Markets September 10, 2007 Kigali, Sep 10, 2007 (Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) – Coffee may be selling internationally at less than $30 a kilo but a recent competition in Rwanda has rated the local brands at a record $55 for the same quantity, RNA reports. Last week in Kigali, there was The Golden Cup competition - the most esteemed prize where Rwanda's best coffees were auctioned to international buyers. Coffee from the north region based SDL Muyongwe washing station in Gakenke District earned the highest honor. The next day this coffee was sold for over US$55 a kilogram to American companies Intelligentsia Coffee and Stumptown Coffee. There were 10 stations that presented their coffees but four sold well above the $30 per kilo international price. The coffees came mainly from the weather friendly regions of the country - north, West and some parts of the south. Though the other six sold ...

You are invited for a Fair Trade Fiesta at the Chicago Funky Buddha Lounge as top-notch Fair Trade community organizers toast to Hope, Empowerment, Human Dignity, and Lasting Change. Proceeds go towards expanding an Ethiopian school in a coffee growing community, while at the same time expanding the global Fair Trade coffee market in Chicago. Readers, please read more and support by donating at www.chicagofairtrade.org . Host: Jane and Mary Anichini, Shayna Harris, and Chicago Fair Trade! Location: Funky Buddha Lounge 728 W. Grand Ave., Chicago, IL US When: Friday, September 21, 7:00PM The evening will include 7:00 p.m. - Black Gold Film Screening, Raffle, Appetizers 8:00 - 11:00 p.m. - Music & Dancing ::: Live Band @ Butterfly Cafe ::: and DJ in VIP lounge All you can drink 7:00 - 10:00 p.m., Organic Wine, Beer and Fair Trade cocktails ~ Stay and DANCE! Entry: $35 donation per person. Entry Includes all night entry to the Funky Buddha Lounge, open till 2:00 a.m. Li...

By Frank Jack Daniel Reuters September 7, 2007 Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz on Friday predicted a shortage of gourmet coffee beans as coffee drinkers across the globe develop more sophisticated tastes. Whilst its competitors will struggle of find the gourmet beans they need, a decade of buying from top end coffee growers means the global coffee chain has ample supplies for the future, the Starbucks founder told Reuters in an interview. "At the very top of the market where Starbucks plays, I do not believe that others will have access to the quality of coffee that we are buying because we have secured those sources," Schultz said. Speaking on a trip to Mexico City to mark five years since opening the first store here, Schultz said Starbucks buyers traveled 300 days a year nurturing contacts with farmers, finding new growing regions and training suppliers to produce better coffee. "At certain points in the future, the work that we have done over the last ten years to ...

Reuters September 4, 2007 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote , Profile , Research ), the world's biggest coffee-shop chain, said it planned to source coffee from China for the first time as it expands in a country with more than 5,000 years of tea-drinking culture. Starbucks has been working with coffee farmers in China's southwestern Yunnan province to help them meet sourcing standards and has sent coffee shipments to the United States for testing, Starbucks China President Wang Jinlong said at the Reuters China Century Summit on Tuesday. "China does produce some quality coffee," Wang said at the summit, held at the Reuters office in Shanghai. He added that sourcing coffee from China would start "very soon, maybe in a couple of years". Some analysts say import tariffs as high as 20 to 60 percent are the reason why companies such as Starbucks are considering sourcing coffee from China. However, Starbucks' Shanghai-based spokeswoman, Caren...

By Jason Simpkins Money Morning August 30, 2007 First it was the cost of a tank-full of gas for your Mercedes SUV. Then it was interest rate on your home-refi loan. But when they messed with your morning ritual – and boosted the price of your the cost of your morning latte, well, that was taking things just too damned far. Coffee-king Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX ) recently boosted its prices by nine cents a beverage. It was the second price increase in 10 months and has boosted the price tag of an already pricey Starbucks morning brew by about 14 cents. The prior price hike – tacked on last October – adjusted for higher labor and energy costs, while the most recent addition to prices was attributed to the big spike in the price of milk, a key component of such Starbuck mainstays as lattes. Milk prices have soared in response to – of all seemingly unrelated factors – a big uptick in the production of ethanol, a gasoline substitute that counts corn as one of its key ingredients. Well, ...

By Alexis Okeowo, Kampala Inter Press Service (Johannesburg) Via All Africa August 29, 2007 Coffee producers in Uganda suffer from an unfair trade relationship with Europe, even though their beans produce some of the best quality coffee in the world, says the Ugandan coffee industry's governing body. "The biggest loser is the person directly involved in coffee bean production," says Henry Ngabirano, director of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. Moreover, Ugandan producers get an "unequal share of the revenue generated by coffee beans". Combined, Ugandan growers and exporters receive 6 percent of the finished product's price, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority. "This shows what level of exploitation there is," Ngabirano says. Coffee beans are Uganda's top cash crop and their production accounts for nearly half of the nation's economy. The country has become a leading Robusta producer since the political crisis erupt...