Under this approach, a total of four brands were created: an umbrella brand with the name “Ethiopian Fine Coffee” and three individual brands entitled “Harar Ethiopian Fine Coffee,” “Yirgacheffe Ethiopian Fine Coffee” and “Sidamo Ethiopian Fine Coffee”. This strategy will ensure that Ethiopian farmers and small businessmen secure a reasonable return from the sale of their coffees. This was seen as a more direct route of protection because it would grant the government of Ethiopia the legal right to exploit, license and use the trademarked names in relation to coffee goods to the exclusion of all other traders. From these ninth-century highlands, arabica coffee beans began their long journey from Ethiopia to the rest of the world. Among the country’s limited tradable goods, coffee alone generates about 60 percent of Ethiopia’s total export earnings. We’re inspiring partners (employees) and customers to get involved in their communities. Starbucks and Ethiopian coffee. This African nation enjoys a strong reputation for its heritage coffees which command a very high retail price in the international market. “You have to understand the situation in Ethiopia,” Mr. Mengistie of EIPO explained. On 26 October 2006, Oxfam accused Starbucks of asking the National Coffee Association (NCA) to block a US trademark application from Ethiopia for three of the country's coffee beans, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. The history of coffee then sees the consumption of coffee moving from Ethiopia to other countries including Yemen, Turkey, Egypt and also Persia. This strategy gave the Ethiopian government greater and more effective control over the distribution of its product, which ultimately increases revenue by exporting more goods, enabling a rise in prices and benefits to farmers. The adopted strategy offered royalty-free license agreements and required the licensee to sell the specialty coffees using the registered trademarks (free of charge) on any product that consists wholly of Ethiopian specialty coffees and to promote Ethiopian fine coffee by educating their customers. The Story of Ethiopia Single-Origin Situated at the conjunction of the African and Arab worlds known as the Horn of Africa, the mountainous country has a biblical quality. Setting up a certification system would have been impracticable and too expensive. An exquisite blend with a reverence for the ritual of coffee, honoring Ethiopia‘s bountiful legacy. Coffee grown worldwide can trace its heritage back centuries to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau. Ethiopia has undergone many changes in their government. By mid-2009, almost one hundred license agreements have been concluded with coffee importing, roasting and distributing companies in North America, Europe, Japan and South Africa. But the National Coffee Association (NCA), representing coffee roasters of the United States, objected to the EIPO’s applications to trademark first Harrar, then Sidamo. Want to learn more about the Starbucks Card? This, in addition to variations in bean size, makes it tricky to roast them without losing their delicate and nuanced flavours. A trademark for Sidamo was also granted in February 2008. In Sidamo, most coffee is processed using the washed method. Hundreds of years ago, an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi became notorious for his trip of goats. © 2019 Starbucks Coffee Company. “I learned from the coffee farmers' cooperatives and exporters just three months ago that the price of Yirgacheffe had already increased by $ 0.60 cents to $ 2 a pound.”. Absolutely—only the packaging is different. 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