Ethiopia sues for Coffee

Ethiopia strongly mediated Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, to share the research results of natural decaf coffee trees, and then fought Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain brand, for the rights and interests of coffee farmers, accusing Green Mermaid of stealing the three coffee origin names of Yejia Shefi, Sidamo and Harar, which were originally owned by Ethiopia, and demanding that Starbucks must cancel the Trademark Registering of these three place names, because these place names belong to Egypt and must be used only with the consent and authorization of the countries concerned.

The dispute broke out in March 2005 and became the focus of international media speculation.

The media is interested in Ethiopia, the birthplace of Arabica. In 2006, the export volume of coffee reached 170,000 tons, earning 431 million US dollars, accounting for 35% of the national export volume. 15 million people out of 70 million people depend on coffee for their livelihood. In 2006, Egypt's GDP was only 9.78 billion US dollars, and its national income was less than 900 US dollars, making it one of the poorest countries in the world.

Starbucks, on the other hand, is a coffee chain giant with 12,440 stores worldwide in 2016. Its powerful legal team is best at suing its peers for counterfeiting the Green Mermaid trademark. Its total turnover is 7.78 billion US dollars, almost 80% of Ethiopia's GDP. In 2006, Starbucks imported 150,000 tons of coffee beans from various producing countries in the world, accounting for about 50% of Ethiopia's coffee production in the same year, but Ethiopian coffee accounted for only 2% of Starbucks 'coffee imports in 2006 (Starbucks mainly focuses on Central and South American beans, which is in line with the historical trajectory of American coffee preference). In the past, only Starbucks told people, but now Ethiopia, which is poor, is treating itself in its own way. It does not hesitate to fight a hard battle with Starbucks, which is rich enough to rival the enemy. Of course, it is wonderful.