Starbucks plans center to help Ethiopian farmers

Starbucks plans to open a farmer-support center in Ethiopia next year, the company announced Wednesday as Chairman Howard Schultz met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The prime minister invited Schultz to visit because of the strengthening relationship between the Seattle company and the coffee-growing country, Starbucks officials said.

Last year, the Ethiopian government accused Starbucks of trying to prevent it from winning U.S. trademarks for Ethiopian coffees. The conflict was resolved last summer. Details of the resolution were not disclosed, but Starbucks acknowledges the country's ownership of three coffee names — Yirgacheffe, Harar and Sidamo — and says it will not block Ethiopia's attempt at U.S. trademarks.

Now it is building a farmer-support center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Like the support center Starbucks opened in 2004 in Costa Rica, it will work with farmers, exporters and others to improve the quality of their coffee so that Starbucks can buy more of it.

"They'll have access to our agronomist and our best practices and all the things that contribute to C.A.F.E. Practices," said Scott McMartin, Starbucks' director of coffee and tea education and green coffee sustainability.

C.A.F.E. Practices, which stands for Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices, is Starbucks' program to help farmers produce high-quality coffee beans and meet certain social and environmental standards. Starbucks buys about 300 million pounds of coffee a year at prices above what farmers receive on the open market.

Most of Starbucks' coffee comes from Latin America; it does not disclose how much comes from African or Asia-Pacific countries. Earlier this year, Starbucks said it plans to double purchases of East African coffees between 2006 and 2008.

Within Africa, Starbucks buys mostly from Ethiopia and Kenya, although it has been buying more from Uganda and Tanzania, McMartin said.

"We have great samples out of Burundi this year, which we're excited about," he said.

Eventually, Starbucks plans to have a farmer-support center in the Asia-Pacific region, too. Besides helping more farmers, it will ensure the company is less reliant on a single region for coffee beans.

"We're so used to the reliability of coffees coming from the Latin American region," McMartin said. "But it's smart for us to expand with new origins, and customers enjoy it when we bring out coffee from new regions."

One of Starbucks' most popular African coffees was a limited-time offering from Rwanda last year, and the company introduced a new espresso blend for the holidays called Regalo that includes Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans.

McMartin said he wasn't sure when the Ethiopian support center would open or how many employees it would have. He also said he didn't know how much it will cost to open and operate.

Starbucks also said Wednesday that, to fulfill a commitment it made to East Africa in February, it wants to find an Ethiopian manufacturer for its black aprons, which roughly 27,000 employees wear to designate their coffee expertise. Other in-store employees wear green aprons. It was not immediately clear where the black aprons are made now.

Schultz was joined in Ethiopia by Cliff Burrows, Starbucks' president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; Dub Hay, senior vice president of coffee and global procurement; and Sandra Taylor, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility.

They will meet with coffee-industry representatives, and Schultz is expected to speak Friday to businesspeople, students and young entrepreneurs about Starbucks' approach to business.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com