Poor Farmer

Also see updated Timeline of the Starbucks-Ethiopia dispute Afriquenligne May 8, 2008 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - In a bid to promote its fine coffee exports, Ethiopia has launched an innovative and radical brand management programme that is pegged to the East African country's distinctive coffees, according to the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (IPO). It is the first time that an African nation has undertaken such a contemporary approach to developing its economy through brand management, Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported Thursday, quoting the IPO. The launch of the programme took place on the sidelines of the just ended 20th Annual Conference of Specialty Coffees Association of America in Minneapolis, USA. Ethiopia, the origin of coffee beans, exports around 177,000 tonnes of coffee a year, representing about 15 percent of the world's production. However, it is only recently that the country woke to international promotion of its famous fine coffees. Accord...

Specialty Coffee World Assembles in Minneapolis for SCAA Conference More than 7,300 Attendees, 850 Exhibit Booths Mark the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition Fox Business May 07, 2008 MINNEAPOLIS, (BUSINESS WIRE) ----By most accounts the Specialty Coffee Association of America's ( SCAA ) 20th Annual Conference & Exhibition, held May 2 - 5 in Minneapolis, Minn., was a success. As the world's largest coffee trade association, SCAA assembled 7,321 specialty coffee professionals from more than 40 countries. The international conference featured the Coffee of the Year Competition and the United States Barista Championship, hosted by Krups, and more than 850 exhibit booths spotlighting the latest, most innovative coffee products available. Local company, Caribou Coffee, the second-largest company-owned gourmet coffeehouse operator in the world, was SCAA's 2008 conference host sponsor. As the world's largest coffee event, the ...

Ethiopia in Trademark First: New Coffee Brand Unveiled to Boost Income of Nation’s Coffee Farmers Press Release Embargoed until 21:00, Sunday 4th May 2008 Via Response Source May 2, 2008 The Ethiopian Government today launches an innovative and radical new brand management programme in order to protect its indigenous coffee varietals, and thus champion its coffee industry. It is the first time that an African nation has undertaken such an innovative approach to protecting its economy, and represents a new era in Africa’s economic development and independence. Ethiopia is the historical home of coffee, and exports more than 177,000 tonnes of coffee a year, representing about 15% of the world's total coffee production. However until now, these indigenous coffees have not been identified and promoted in their own right, which has led to low awareness of the high quality and uniqueness of varietals such as Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Harar coffees, which deserve recognition as some of the...

By PETER MWAURA Daily Nation Media April 19, 2008 Intellectual property rights are regarded by many people as food for the rich and poison for the poor. But this is a debatable issue; maybe the topic for another article. What is straightforward in today’s knowledge-driven economies, however, is the role of these rights in development. IPRs protect inventions, scientific discoveries, copyrights, patents, trade marks, industrial designs and, in some cases, traditional knowledge and folklore. They are critical tools in commerce, wealth and knowledge generation. There is evidence that countries which embrace the IPRs grow faster. It is no accident, for example, that the largest number of international patent applications received by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) from developing countries in 2007 were from South Korea (7,061) and China (5,456). The fast-growing countries were followed by India (686), South Africa (390), Brazil (384), Mexico (173), Malaysia (103), Egy...

The Increasing Sophistication of Coffee Drinkers is Good for Producers From The Economist print edition April 17, 2008 ADDIS ABABA COFFEE prices are the highest they have been for a decade. As consumers in India and China develop a taste for the drink, prices are likely to keep rising. Meanwhile something new is happening in developed markets. Europeans, Americans and Japanese are switching to higher-quality coffee. Discerning consumers now demand authenticity: they want stories about where their coffee beans come from. So the best coffees will increasingly be differentiated, like fine wines and spirits, and sold at previously unthinkable prices. The move from instant-coffee powder to luxury beans is in some ways reminiscent of what happened when the Scotch-whisky industry shifted from cheap blends to expensive single malts, each with its own story. But where the whisky revolution was masterminded by distillers, the coffee revolution is a messier insurgency. Gourmets and specialist ...

Fog rolls over the hills in Yirgacheffe on Dec. 7, 2007. Photographer: Michael Tsegaye/ Bloomberg News By Marianne Stigset Bloomberg April 17, 2008 Wearing a gray jacket and white cap to ward off the early morning chill, Bedhane Gambarso plucks ripe, red coffee berries from the trees on his 1.5-hectare (3.7- acre) farm in the hills of Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe region. Gambarso, a 44-year-old former soldier, earned 4,000 birr ($421) last year from his crop, which had to support his wife and eight children until the next harvest. At night, the family shares its one-room hut with two cows and three sheep. Ethiopia, where coffee originated, is trying to boost the incomes of farmers like Gambarso by trademarking its beans, prized for their rich, fruity flavor. Producing nations such as Colombia have followed suit as growers struggle to grab more of the $25 billion consumers spend on premium varieties each year. Success may mean higher prices for lattes and cut profits for companies such ...

A farmer at his coffee plantation. Premium earnings will be buoyed by the rise in global demand. Photo: courtesy of Reuters via Business Daily Business Daily April 14, 2008 Coffee producers are set to continue enjoying premium earnings in the medium term helped by a steady rise in demand for the commodity in the global market. An International Coffee Organisation (ICO) survey shows that though Arabica coffee prices recorded downward adjustments of about five per cent in March, the trend is expected to level out in the coming month as demand improves. Kenya exclusively produces small volumes of the much-sought high quality Arabica coffee. The ICO reckons that continuing fund activity in the commodity markets had triggered price volatility that has surprisingly worked in favour of Robusta producing nations such as Uganda with the prices climbing by as much as 5.6 per cent. “In the space of two days between March 5 and 6 quotations on the New York futures market (ICE) fluctuated by 5.5...