Starbucks and Ethiopia strike deal on coffee beans

04 May 2007 by
Starbucks and Ethiopia strike deal on coffee beans

Starbucks and the Government of Ethiopia have reached an agreement over the licensing, distribution and marketing of speciality Ethiopian coffee brands.

When signed later this month, the Ethiopian government will look to copyright and trademark three coffee types: Harar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe, as well as retaining their existing sales collaborations with Starbucks.

The two parties have been locked in talks after UK charity Oxfam claimed that Starbucks had complained to the National Coffee Association (NCA) in the USA after the Ethiopian government attempted to trademark the three coffees in a US court.

Starbucks has constantly denied this claim.

Oxfam said that if the NCA were to define the terms under which the coffee was sold it would deny the Ethiopian economy £47m a year.

Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, said: "We] eagerly await the final agreement and long overdue recognition of these coffees as unique and valued products of Ethiopia's coffee farmers."

Getachew Mengistie, Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) director general, said: "We realise our approach to trade-marking and licensing these coffee brands that originate in and represent the best of Ethiopia's coffee heritage is new but believe it meets the needs of small Ethiopian fine coffee farmers and traders."

Oxfam website >>

Starbucks in copyright spat with Ethiopia >>

Starbucks returns to winning ways with record Q1 turnover >>

Starbucks ups long-term store target to 40,000 >>

NCA website >>

By Christopher Walton

E-mail your comments to [Christopher Walton](mailto:christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk?subject=Starbucks and Ethiopia strike deal on coffee beans) here.

[The Caterer Blog](http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/catering-news-blog/) Catch up with more news and gossip on the Caterer Blog here
[Newswire For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail news alerts.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking