The coffee farmers of Ethiopia had a brief moment of optimism in November 2006, when Starbucks CEO Jim Donald met, in Addis Ababa, with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Their hope was that Starbucks would drop its attempt to control the U.S. trademarks to the names of Ethiopia’s
premier coffee beans, Sidamo and Harar.
At stake is the marketplace recognition which could result from the wide-spread branding of the beans; the Ethiopian government believes a branding campaign could result in nearly $90 million dollars in extra sales each year.
Ethiopia has already trademarked its beans in thirty countries, and Zenawi says their attempt to do so in the U.S. is simply to protect their coffee farmers’ rights. Many Ethiopian farmers subsist on less that $1.00 per day, yet Starbucks sells Ethiopian coffee blends for up to $26.00 a pound.
In fact, the entire Ethiopian economy thrives or suffers with the price of coffee, which constitutes 50% of its exports.
The U.S. national Coffee Association has weighed in with the argument the U.S. trademark law does not permit the trademarking of geographical locations. Sidamo and Harar are two of Ethiopia’s coffee growing regions.
But that argument seems disingenuous. In August of 2006, Ethiopia was granted a U.S. Trademark on “Yirgacheffe”, the name of another of its coffee-growing regions, and the name associated with what many coffee experts consider the finest Ethiopian coffee.
Yirgacheffe, however, is relatively unknown, picked by hand, and represents only a small percentage of the Ethiopian coffee crop.
Ethiopia has extended to Starbucks an offer of the royalty-free use of the names, should they be trademarked. Eleven other U.S. coffee companies have already accepted similar offers, recognizing Ethiopia’s rights to the names with or without trademarks.
What might turn things in Ethiopia’s favor? Now appearing in theaters, the documentary “Black Gold” takes a devastating-to-big-coffee look at entire coffee trading system, from its days as Ethiopian beans to its final destination in a Starbuck’s $4.00 latte.
As many a coffee drinker knows, not all coffee is created equal. And in the coffee-bean-grower-to-end-customer chain, it seems, neither are the links.
