Poor Farmer

By Wondwossen Mezlekia January 9, 2012 It looks like this decade is shaping up nicely as a period of Coffee Rush in Ethiopia; of course, with little resemblance to the California Gold Rush (1848–1855) and involving mostly internal actors. Reminisce the trademark dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopia that publicly erupted six years ago. In 2006, Oxfam stood up, on behalf of Ethiopian farmers, and demanded Starbucks to drop the hindrance it created against the name "Sidamo" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Starbucks ultimately gave in and even promised to open a Farmer Support Center in Addis Ababa by 2008. Ethiopia now has the legal right to add the symbol ® next to the coffee names Harar, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe in the United States (and some other countries) though the Farmer Support Center is still missing. And the NGO that is behind the project is now claiming that the farmers' annual income has doubled to about $278 as a result. R...

Wondwossen Mezlekia Jan 05, 2012 Starbucks Corporation announced today the release of a limited supply of Organic Ethiopia Sidamo® Coffee, for a short time starting January 10, 2012. This is the third year when Starbucks featured limited supplies of Ethiopian coffee since the trademark dispute with the government of Ethiopia ended in 2007.  In 2010, the company featured Limu®  and then Harar® in summer 2011, all in select stores. The current offering of Ethiopia Sidamo® appears to be more of a showcase for the company's new Quick Response (QR) code that it introduces for the first time. A QR code is a type of matrix barcode that was first created by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process. The tracking system, one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes, is gaining popularity outside the automotive industry in the U.S., Canada, and China. In 2010, Starbucks said, ...

By Jennefer Sinco Kelleher Huffington Post HONOLULU -- Kona coffee growers want Hawaii's labeling law modified to provide more details on packages of coffee blends that contain Hawaii-grown beans. Currently, coffee blends sold in the state that contain Hawaii-grown coffee must disclose what percentage is grown in the islands, and it must be at least 10 percent. The Kona Coffee Farmers Association said Thursday that it wants the state Legislature to consider a bill it has drafted that would also identify where the remainder of the blend is grown. If the association is successful an example of a package label would read, "90 percent Panamanian coffee, 10 percent Kona coffee." The state senator from Kona said Thursday he plans to introduce the bill at the end of the month. "I respect the local community and Kona coffee is a big issue for us," state Sen. Josh Green, D-Milolii-Waimea, said. For the farmers, it's about truth-in-labeling a...

By Isis Almeida Bloomberg January 3, 2012 Coffee prices will remain supported this year due to climate change and market fundamentals, according to Santos, Brazil-based broker Escritorio Carvalhaes. The price of arabica beans rose to a 14-year high of $3.089 a pound in New York on May 3 as heavy rainfall caused by the La Nina weather conditions cut output in Colombia, the world’s second-largest producer of the variety. Coffee slipped 5.7 percent in New York last year and closed 42 percent above the 5- year average, according to data on Bloomberg. “Climate changes and market fundamentals will maintain prices in 2012, but we will continue to be tied to the developments of the euro-zone crisis and its consequences to the global economy,” the broker said in a report e-mailed yesterday. Arabica coffee supplies will match demand in the 2011-12 season started in October after at least three years of deficits, data from Macquarie Group Ltd. show. Arabica beans ...

By Annie Gasparro Dow Jones Newswires January 3, 2012 NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Starbucks Corp. ( SBUX ) is raising its menu  prices in certain regions in an effort to combat higher coffee prices it's facing this year. The Seattle chain is raising prices about 1% in the Northeast and Sunbelt regions, which include cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M.Starbucks wouldn't give details of all the states that will receive an increase, but did say it includes most Southern states besides California and Florida. Throughout the recession and recovery, Starbucks has continued implementing annual menu price increases, but said it has still taken "far less" of an increase than others in the industry. The latest push comes as Starbucks faces higher commodity costs this fiscal year than some of its competitors. Starbucks contracted its coffee prices for the full fiscal year 2012, which began in October, we...

By Wondwossen Mezlekia poorfarmer@gmail.com December 20, 2011 The bulk coffee directive Last month, coffee buyers across the globe had a rare glimpse into Ethiopians' day to day experience, where haphazard policymaking is used by the government to interfere in and control people's business whenever it feels like it. A new directive requiring the shipment of coffee in bulk container (a process of filling coffee in ' dry containers' fitted with a liner, as opposed to loading coffee packed in 60-kilogram jute-bags ) suddenly surfaced in mid November and shocked the market. [1] It was revoked thirty days later because of pressures from foreign diplomats, plummeting sales, and a cloud of fear of losing coffee buyers for good.  It's not clear how it all began, but it appears some genius one day figured out the quickest way to "modernize the country's export packaging and shipment standards" and the government decided to begin shipping ...

By Asrat Seyoum The Reporter December 17, 2011 Photo: Courtesy of The Reporter On April 24, 2008 Bob Geldof, the renowned ex-rock star, who had strong ties to the country on account of rallying international help to the great Ethiopian famine of the 1984, kicked off the first modern commodity exchange market in the country. The irony that Geldof, the very person who campaigned to feed millions, ringing the bell to commence a modern grain market in Ethiopia apparent, hopes for Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) to redefine the country’s agricultural commodities market landscape was very high. And ECX’s first pick to start its operation was the oldest and the most prominent cash-cow in the economy: coffee. The move from the old coffee board and auction system to the new anonymous trading system was never easy to say the least. Nevertheless, close to three years  on ECX floor, the bumpy performance cannot be attributed to adjusting to a system alone; both the...