The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
Kaleyesus Bekele
17 February 2007
Addis Ababa — Representatives of Starbucks yesterday announced that they will not oppose Ethiopia's effort to trade mark regional names for its coffee beans.
In a press conference they gave to the media at the Sheraton Addis, the representatives stated that they had agreed to work with the Ethiopian government to promote Ethiopian value added products like tea and textile and to continue the ongoing dialogue.
A Starbucks delegation came to Addis Ababa to participate in the fourth African Fine Coffee Conference and to meet Ethiopian authorities. The delegation met officials of the ministries of agriculture and rural development, trade and industry, finance and economic development as well as the Intellectual Property Office.
Following the delegation's meeting with Ethiopian authorities, the Ethiopian state media reported that Starbucks had agreed to recognize Ethiopia's ownership of coffee trade marks. However, representatives of Starbucks denied the media report. "No, we have not agreed on that. What we have agreed to is not to oppose the Ethiopian government's right to pursue trade marking for its regional names," Dub Hay, senior vice president for Coffee and Global Procurement, said.
"We agreed how we can help to promote Ethiopian products in our stores and to continue the ongoing dialogue. Nothing has been signed. We did not come with the mission to reach an agreement," Mr. Hay told local and foreign journalists. However, he said, the delegation held positive discussions with Ethiopian authorities. "We have taken the relationship to a new level," he added "It is Ethiopians' absolute right to take the course they think it is best for Ethiopia. And we will not oppose that," he affirmed his company's current position.
Anne Saunders, senior vice president for Global Brand Strategy, said that Starbucks does not want to fight adding the company wanted to work together in spurring economic development. Asked what would happen if Ethiopia succeeded in trade marking its regional names for its coffee beans, representatives of the company said they did not know the implications adding speculations would harm the ongoing dialogue.
The international development charity, Oxfam, claims that Starbucks was depraving coffee farmers in Ethiopia of 90 million dollars a year by opposing the Ethiopian government's efforts to trademark three types of local coffee bean. Representatives of Starbucks utterly deny the statement.
The US global coffee chain Starbucks was established in 1971 in Seattle. It operates 13,000 stores in 39 countries. Some 44 million customers visit its stores every week. Every year the company buys over 290 million pounds of coffee valued at seven billion dollars. Last year it purchased 295 million pounds of African coffee, accounting for six percent of its total purchase. The company has increased the price it offers to a pound of coffee from 1.28 dollars to 1.42 dollars.
Mr. Alain Poncelet, vice president for Coffee and Managing Director, Starbucks Coffee Trading Company, USA told The Reporter that Starbucks had been buying Ethiopian coffee for the past 35 years. Mr Poncelet said his company buys three percent of the coffee produced in Ethiopia.
In the 2005-2006 fiscal year Ethiopia exported 153, 155 tonnes of coffee valued at 365,835,000 dollars.
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