ETHIOPIA: Starbucks will not oppose Ethiopian effort to trademark its coffee

Starbucks said on Friday (February 16) it would not oppose any efforts by Ethiopia to trademark its coffee and was confident of good relations with the Horn of Africa country. After meeting with Ethiopia's top officials this week Dub Hay, Starbucks' senior vice president for coffee and global procurement said it would not oppose any attempt by the country to trademark its coffee and also predicted slightly higher prices for arabica beans from east Africa. Ethiopia and British charity Oxfam have said that the U.S. coffee giant prevented Ethiopia from securing trademark protection for two of its best-known beans, Sidamo and Harar. Ethiopia had threatened to take measures if Starbucks failed to recognise its brands. "We will not oppose any of the efforts going forward and we will respect their rights on what they do on trademarks," Hay told Reuters. He said the company would continue to appeal to the Ethiopian government to accept its proposal that it pursues certification of its coffee. The Starbucks and Ethiopia trademarking row has dominated proceedings at a speciality coffee conference in Addis Ababa, where top quality coffee African producers have been meeting. Most of the countries in the 10-members Eastern African Coffee Association (EAFCA) supported Ethiopia saying trademarking of crops and plants could lift millions on the continent out of poverty. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, wants the trademark to be able to control the use of the beans in the market giving its poor farmers higher retail prices. Hay denied that the Ethiopian government had threatened to ban Starbucks from buying its coffee and said that instead, he saw a much improved understanding after a series of meetings this week. "The meetings with the ministers have been very positive. Both parties have a better understanding of where we stand on the issue, where we can agree to disagree and where we can work together," he said. Hay said the row was created by misrepresentation of facts but also added that Starbucks must take blame for not engaging enough in the past. "I think we have not done a good job in east Africa," he said. "What we have been poor on is building relationship at the government level, getting to know the needs of the region." Hay this week announced measures to boost production in the region including doubling of coffee purchases, increasing credit to farmers and setting up farmers support centres. He predicted a period of "slightly" higher prices for arabica coffee "grown by most of the countries in east Africa. Only Uganda is a big producer of robusta coffee in the region. "The speciality segment where we buy that is high quality arabica coffee has held up and is moving up," he said. He added that coffee production in the east African region was also on an upward trend. "I think there has been misrepresentation which we have felt the need to try and correct," Hay said. "I think the key to that is not in investing in more trees but to get more yields. I am bullish on east Africa."

ITN Source | February 17, 2007

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