Poor Farmer

The Times May 14, 2008 Consumer behaviour might be something with which we are all familiar, but in many instances it remains somewhat of a mystery. If consumers could be read like an open book, then there would be no unsuccessful ad campaigns. So it’s always useful when research comes out that throws light on the kind of issues which tend - usually - to be the province of assumption and conjecture. Take corporate social investment. Does it actually pay off? Do consumers really reward brands that take care to manufacture their products in an ethical or sustainable way? (For example, Starbucks has started to advertise their ethical relationships with coffee growers in third world countries; locally, Woolworths sells pricey pesto produced at a hydroponics project in Beaufort West…it’s been so long since I last got to use alliteration so shamelessly.) Surely, consumer demand should be a major driver of ethical corporate behaviour - so that demand should go straight to the bottom line. No...

Nation Casts Its Coffee As a Luxury Brand, Strikes a Starbucks Deal Brandhouse Ethiopia hopes its new 'e' logo will help elevate its coffee. Pic: Courtesy of WSJ The world's biggest coffee chain hasn't decided how or if it will use the new logos, said Dub Hay, Starbucks' senior vice president for coffee and procurement. - WSJ By AARON O. PATRICK The Wall Street Journal ; Page B7 May 15, 2008 A small design firm here was recently hired by an unusual client with an unconventional request: The Ethiopian government commissioned Brandhouse to come up with a logo that will make consumers feel like they are drinking a luxury when they have Ethiopian coffee. This month, the Ethiopian government is releasing the logos for three varieties of Ethiopian coffee beans that it hopes will eventually appear from the burlap sacks that are used to transport coffee beans to coffee cups in cafes. It is the first time the country has introduced a brand for its major export. The Ethiopian...

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 ...