Ethiopia, Starbucks strike coffee licensing deal

Representatives of the government of Ethiopia and senior leaders from Starbucks Coffee Company announced in early May that they have have agreed in principle to sign a licensing, distribution and marketing agreement that recognizes the importance and integrity of Ethiopia's specialty coffee names. According to the a press statement by the two sides, the agreement would help to expand their ongoing collaboration to market and sell Ethiopia's exceptionally high quality coffees.

"Ethiopia is firmly committed to work in partnership with all international specialty coffee companies and distributors of its fine coffees, including Harar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. We realise our approach to trademarking and licensing these coffee brands that originate in and represent the best of Ethiopia's coffee heritage is a new approach that not only meets the needs of small Ethiopian fine coffee farmers and traders but also the coffee roasting and distributing companies and their customers," commented Ethiopian government official Getachew Mengistie.

"Ethiopia is recognized as the historic birthplace of coffee and the source of some of the finest coffee in the world," said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. "We're extremely excited to continue to deepen our relationship with the government of Ethiopia."

The issue of Ethiopia's bid to control the licensing of its indigenous coffee brands has been contentious. The effort to do so is so that more of the final selling price of its coffee gets to its coffee farmers. Until this agreement, influential coffee buyer Starbucks has been resisting the move, earning it much adverse publicity.

The Sub-Saharan Informer