What's the story of Ethiopian coffee? the story of Ethiopian Coffee and Starbucks

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Starbucks has swept the world as a king in recent years. To become a well-known fashion brand, in order to arouse the recognition of more consumers with the power of consumption, Starbucks proposed the "commitment to the producing area of caffeine (Commitment to Origins; for short, CTO)" program in 2003, and launched the "fairly traded coffee beans". Taking care of coffee farmers has become Starbucks' brand image emphasized by Starbucks. But this is not the case!

Starbucks has vigorously promoted Ethiopia as the birthplace of coffee. Starting from March 2006, the Ethiopian government began to propose to the United States Patent and Trademark Office the hope that coffee beans from three places of Ethiopian coffee brands-Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe-could be named and registered trademarks in order to have more control over coffee marketing and promotion. Fighting for better prices for coffee farmers has been blocked by coffee retail giants such as Starbucks.

Ethiopian farmers sell coffee beans to Starbucks for only 75 cents a pound, while Starbucks sells them for $13 a pound, with a price difference of 34 times.

The lawsuit between Ethiopia and Starbucks

In order to gradually increase Ethiopia's coffee export income and improve the lives of 15 million people in the coffee industry, the Ethiopian government launched the "High quality Coffee Trading and Marketing and Authorization pilot Program" (Fine Coffee Trade Marking and Licensing Initiative), a key step of which is to obtain trademark protection for Ethiopian specialty coffee. Starbucks initially denied the allegations, arguing that registered trademarks were not the best way to help farmers, but should adopt regional certification, as in France's model of fine wine. But in the end, Starbucks, an American caffeine chain, signed an agreement with the Ethiopian government on May 9, 2007, agreeing to respect the patent rights of unique Ethiopian coffee varieties on the labels of Starbucks products. put an end to the long-standing trademark dispute between the two sides.

Through the success of this trademark case, it is hoped that thousands of coffee farmers and their families in Ethiopia will be able to extricate themselves from poverty, help their children go to school and receive better health care.

Brief introduction of Ethiopian background

Name of country

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) was formerly known as "Abyssinia"

Capital

Adis Berbatov Addis Ababa

Climate

The climate of the plateau is mild, the lowland is hot, and the plateau

And lowland (East African graben) is the foregoing.

The transition of two kinds of climate

Time zone

+ 3

Language

Amharic

Per capita GDP

$800 (No. 223)

average life span

48 years old (2005)

Major religions

Christianity

Money

Bill Birr

Ethiopia, once a great power in East Africa, is now heavily in debt because of the chaos of the war. The population of agriculture and animal husbandry accounts for 80% of the country's population.

According to literature records, Ethiopia has a long history of eating coffee, is the origin of coffee, is still an important cash crop, and is now the largest coffee producer in Africa. The country generally produces about 200000 tons of coffee a year and is produced in the northern mountains (Yega) and the northeast (Hara), which is the birthplace of caffeine.

The origin of coffee is said to be that Ethiopian shepherds found coffee trees in Kaffa. The word Coffee comes from Kaffa, and Kaffa has become a place of pilgrimage for professional coffee fans. However, in fact, at first, people did not regard coffee as a drink, but as food. The wandering Gallas roasted the beans, crushed them into powder, mixed them with butter and kneaded them into hard balls for food during the journey. Supplementary information: "Fair Trade beans"

Fair Trade (Fair Trade) is a trade partnership based on dialogue, transparency and mutual respect. It aims to pursue greater fairness in international transactions, to provide fairer terms of transaction and to ensure the rights and interests of marginalized workers and producers, especially in the southern hemisphere. The Fair Trade Group (supported by consumers) is actively involved in supporting producers, awareness raising and projects aimed at changing traditional international trade habits.

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