Poor Farmer

By Tesfa-alem Tekle Sudan Tribune January 01, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The Ministry of Trade and Industry said some 443.7 million USD has been earned from exported items in the last five months. "The income just collected is a 29% increase compared to an income collected last year over the same period of time" Public Relation Head with the Ministry,Haile Abebe said. He said coffee, oils seeds, khat, cereals, leather and leather products, gold and cut flowers have generated the highest earnings respectively. According to the Ministry Ethiopia expects to earn 1.7 billion USD income this Ethiopian budget year. The head said" 46,310 tons of coffee has been exported to various countries and brought 127 million USD." The volume of cotton, cereals, tantalum and beef and meat and cattle exported in the reported period shown a remarkable increase from the target set for the period. Hailu added. Ethiopia’s export trade is increasing at a high rate in the last three years and the ...

By Philip Ngunjiri Nation Media December 23, 2007 IT IS THE YEAR 2005, AND A COFfee farmer somewhere in the highlands of Ethiopia is saying he has uprooted his coffee crop to replace it with khat (miraa). Reason: He can get a comparatively higher price for the latter, compared with the low price he is getting for coffee. Fast forward to 2006 and you are at the New York Board of Trade, a commodity trading floor in New York City, in the US, where the international benchmark price of coffee is set each business day based on weather, supply and demand. These are scenes from Black Gold, an award winning documentary. The film contrasts the enormous power and wealth of the multinational coffee companies with the plight of poor Ethiopian coffee farmers as they struggles for a better life. The documentary explores the effects of international prices (which by 2006 were at an all-time low) on coffee growers. As the film unfolds, it is evident that despite the global coffee market being worth b...

Starbucks Corporation Chairman and Chief Global Strategist, Howard Schultz, came to visit Ethiopia a few months after his company signed a deal with Ethiopia recognising the trademark right the latter has over three of its coffee varieties. He met with Ethiopian authorities, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and gave a lecture on balancing "business with benevolence" on Friday, November 30, 2007, at the Sheraton Addis. In all these, neither Mr. Schulz nor Ethiopian authorities have revealed the content of the agreement they have signed, observes Shlomo Bachrach. Employed by Ethiopia's trademarks advisor, LightYears IP, and resigning before the Starbucks negotiations began, Mr. Bachrach has a lot more questions than answers. - Addis Fortune By Shlomo Bachrach Addis Fortune December 2, 2007 Starbucks deserves full recognition for its announcement of a proposed Farmer Support Centre to be established in Addis Abeba. When completed, it will represent tangible compensatio...

Starbucks Press Release CSRwire December 1, 2007 KIGALI, RWANDA and SEATTLE - Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) chairman Howard Schultz announced today that the company will open a regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Rwanda. The facility will provide an opportunity for Starbucks to collaborate with farmers in Rwanda and in the East Africa region, and demonstrates the company's continued support for their efforts to expand the availability of their high quality, specialty coffee worldwide. "We are very excited to have a regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center here in Rwanda. We look forward to working with Starbucks to offer additional support to the coffee farming community here and in the neighboring countries," said Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda. "This center will offer many new opportunities to enhance our methods and produce even greater volumes of our high quality specialty coffees." The Rwandan center, like the one announced earlier thi...

"We are here to turn the page of the misunderstandings, for a new beginning," said Howard Shultz, chairman of the US coffee shop chain after having signed a coffee distribution and marketing deal with the Ethiopian government. - AFP Photo: Courtesy of AFP Starbucks to Build Ethiopian Farmers' Centre AFP November 28, 2007 US coffee giant Starbucks on Wednesday announced plans to build a support centre for Ethiopian coffee farmers, claiming an end to a long-running dispute with the East African country. "We are here to turn the page of the misunderstandings, for a new beginning," said Howard Shultz, chairman of the US coffee shop chain. He was speaking after having signed a coffee distribution and marketing deal with the Ethiopian government. "This is a real commitment to work side by side with the coffee farmers of Ethiopia," he added. Starbucks plans to build next year a center in Addis Ababa aimed to help farmers to raise the quality and production of...

By Tsegaye Tadesse Reuters November 28, 2007 ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Starbucks said on Wednesday it would open a support centre for coffee farmers in Ethiopia, which earlier this year clashed with the company over a bid to trademark its coffee beans. The world's largest coffee shop chain said it would open the centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, in 2008. The announcement was made in conjunction with a trip to Ethiopia by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. "The facility, the first in Africa, will enable Starbucks to work collaboratively with Ethiopian farmers to raise both the quality and production of the country's high-quality specialty coffees," Schultz said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The centre "will provide resources and ongoing support to coffee communities with the goal of improving coffee quality and growing practices," Schultz added. Starbucks said it is also in talks with an Ethiopian apparel factory to ...

Ethiopian News Agency [Government Owned] November 23, 2007 (Addis Ababa) - A delegation led by owner and board chairman of Starbucks, a leading Coffee Company of the U.S, would visit Ethiopia as of the coming Wednesday, the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) said. Trade mark director with the office, Wendwossen Belete told ENA on Friday that the delegation led by Howard Schultz would stay here for three days. Schultz is expected to hold discussions with high level Ethiopian government officials on various issues. Starbucks is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world that recognized Ethiopia's ownership of its premium coffee brands. Howard Schultz is a businessman and entrepreneur most widely known as the Chairman and Chief Global Strategist of Starbucks. Schultz, who is founder Starbucks, has been chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of the company since its inception in 1987. ------- Ed's Note: To read a summary of the t...