Petition Starbucks to give back control of Ethiopian coffee-growing regional names to Ethiopia

Howard Schultz

Ethiopia—the birthplace of coffee—is locked in a bitter trademark dispute between Starbucks, a $6.4 billion giant with 10,500 stores in 37 countries, and the poor, hillside coffee farmers of Ethiopia’s premium coffee-growing regions. Food First’s Mulugeta Handino—an Ethiopian development expert and researcher—explains what is at stake.

The Ethiopian Coffee Experience

Coffee is the single most important cash crop in Ethiopia. It provides over 60 percent of the foreign exchange earnings, 4 percent of GNP, and 10 percent of the government’s revenue. There are about 1.2 million smallholder coffee farmers and about 15 million households dependent on coffee for their livelihood. Moreover, small growers, whose holdings are often less than 1 ha, produce about 95 percent of the coffee produced in Ethiopia. The remaining percent belongs to the state coffee farms (Yilma; 1996).[i] Being a labor-intensive business, the coffee sector is one of the largest employers, particularly for women, who select, process, and package coffee. Of the African countries, Ethiopia grows the most coffee for export. An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 tons of coffee is produced in Ethiopia every year, with fluctuations due to the climate, prices, and the seasonal nature of coffee plants.[ii]

Apart from its central role in the economy of Ethiopia, coffee has an immense cultural importance in the daily life of Ethiopians. The coffee ceremony of Ethiopia—culturally equivalent to Japanese tea ceremony—is a central gesture of hospitality. It starts with washing the beans in front of invited guests and neighbors. Then the host roasts the beans and passes them around so everyone can smell their fresh aroma. Everybody stretches out their arms to pull the aroma closer to their noses. Next, the coffee is ground with a mortar and pestle, and finally brewed and served in tiny cups with salt and sugar. The entire ceremony takes about an hour and a half.

Today, coffee is traded in the London and New York commodity exchanges, and is second only to oil as a source of foreign exchange for many countries in the Global South.[iii] Yet despite the gourmet coffee explosion led by Starbucks and other high-end retailers, coffee may become yet another “resource curse” for poor farmers in Ethiopia. This has nothing to do with the quality of the coffee or consumer demand in the industrial North. On the contrary, even on empty stomachs, Ethiopian coffee farmers produce some of the world’s best gourmet coffee—they just don’t reap much benefit from it. Recent efforts on the part of the Ethiopian government to capture a larger share of the gourmet profits for these farmers resulted in a strong push back from Starbucks, a self-proclaimed industry leader in social and environmental responsibility.

What’s in a Name?—The Reputation for Quality

The brawl started last year when the Ethiopian government filed applications in the U.S. to trademark the names of the places of origin of three of its most famous coffee growing regions; Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names will enable Ethiopia to capture a greater share of the U.S. retail price, bringing Ethiopian farmers an estimated $88 million extra per year. Starbucks immediately protested to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) who promptly rejected Ethiopia’s application because Starbucks had already filed for exclusive ownership over Sidamo and Harar, giving them exclusive rights to market premium Ethiopian coffee under these Ethiopian regional names.

Starbucks has encouraged the Ethiopian government to settle for certification, rather than the right to the U.S. trademark. Ethiopia has already trademarked these regional names in other countries around the world. As long as Starbucks holds the U.S. patent, other U.S. coffee distributors cannot put these regional names on their labels, thus reducing the amount as well as the price that Ethiopians are paid for these quality coffee beans.

Aid versus fair trade?

The consequences of blocking the efforts of trademarking for Ethiopia mean a lot for one of the poorest nations on the face of the earth. The estimated $88 million in lost revenues is more than the amount of debt forgiven Ethiopia by the U.S. government as part of Jubilee Debt Cancellation Campaign ($71.4 million). It could mean revenues for hospitals, anti-retroviral medicines, schools, local food security, and clean water. The amount is also greater than the nearly $51 million in foreign aid the U.S. Congress gave to Ethiopia in 2006 through USAID.[iv] According to their website, Starbucks contributes $588,000 to Ethiopia’s coffee-growing regions for “social development projects and microfinance initiatives.” This clearly pales next to the wealth being extracted from Ethiopia. Essentially, U.S. tax dollars subsidize Starbucks. (Remember that next time you belly up to the Starbucks experience for that $3 premium cup of Ethiopian Sidamo…)

Challenge Starbucks to stop this open bribery against the poor Ethiopian coffee farmers?

We invite you to join with other informed consumers and activists to fight against this unfair trademarking of the names of Ethiopian growing regions.

In 2001, an activist/consumer campaign forced Starbucks to begin serving fair-trade coffee in its stores in the U.S.[v] By joining with Ethiopian farmers, you can force Starbucks to release its U.S. trademark on Ethiopian place of origin names. Ethiopia deserves to own and register the trademark of their own coffee growing regions, and Ethiopia’s poor small farmers deserve to make enough money to feed themselves.

Paul Katzeff, founder and CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee Company, a champion in advocating fair trade business since 1972, has expressed his unreserved support for the Ethiopian government’s position:

“The Ethiopian government has a legitimate right to trademark its coffee. Poor Ethiopian coffee farmers produce a top quality coffee and I have been selling these coffees under their right name and place of origin for a long time. It is very unjust not be able to value the names of coffee and reward them for their achievements.”

According to the intellectual property (IP) firm, Light Years IP of Washington D.C. Ethiopians have already secured these coffee trademarks in over 30 countries.[vi] U.S. coffee consumers have the power to improve the lives of poor Ethiopian farmers. Put pressure on Starbucks! Join the broad coalition of student groups, nongovernmental organizations, and Ethiopians in the Ethiopian trademark campaign organized by a number of organizations including Food First.

Write to Starbucks CEO, Jim Donald at:

2401 Utah Ave S,

Seattle, WA 98134

or call 206-447-1575

Sign This Petition: Tell Starbucks to help Ethiopia get their fair share http://www.foodfirst.org/actionalerts

Other things you can do:

Watch the documentary, Black Gold which has just been released. www.blackgoldmovie.com

Buy fair trade Ethiopian coffee from the following distributors:

Dean's Beans Organic Coffee Company 1-800-325-3008 www.deansbeans.com

Thanksgiving Coffee http://store.thanksgivingcoffee.com/product_info?products_id=58

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/navCategory.aspx?DeptName=OurCoffees&Name=FairTradeOrganic

Equal Exchange Organic Ethiopian http://www.equalexchange.com/origin-coffee#OE

[i] As quoted in Teferi Regassa & Dejene Aredo. (2002). The Global Coffee Crisis: Implications for Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

[ii] http://www.africa-ata.org/coffee.htm

[iii] http://www.ico.org/coffee_story.asp

[iv] http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/afr/et.html

[v] http://organicconsumers.org/Starbucks/tycoon.cfm

[vi] http://www.lightyearsip.net/ethiopiacoffee.shtml