The EthioRussian » Fair Trade http://www.ethiorussian.com My footing on the rest of the world Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:09:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Relationship Coffee: A transparent approach http://www.ethiorussian.com/2007/03/12/relationship-coffee-a-transparent-approach/ http://www.ethiorussian.com/2007/03/12/relationship-coffee-a-transparent-approach/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000 ethiorussian http://ethiorussian.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/relationship-coffee-a-transparent-approach/

“Relationship Coffee” is a term coined by Sustainable Harvest, an importer of specialty coffee from the top organic and Fair Trade coffee farms from around the world. Sustainable Harvest uses this Relationship Coffee model to essentially bridge the gap between the farmer and the world’s biggest coffee markets. The organization posted a short video on the “Relationship Coffee Fair Trade” case study (sorry I could not embed the video but you can find it here: Case Study 1 of 2, Case Study 2 of 2).

Companies like Starbucks, Kraft Foods (Maxwell House Coffee), and Procter & Gamble (Folgers) should use an approach like Relationship Coffee because it will enable the best coffee farms to improve their productivity while improving the economic conditions of their own environment.

To put things in perspective, Starbucks has a market cap currently valued at $22.76 billion compared to Ethiopia’s GDP of $71.63 billion (2006 Est., using purchasing power parity). This makes it kinda hard to believe that a company would refuse to go with a licensing agreement with one of the poorest nations in the world… I guess in the end it’s all about making investors happy…

]]> http://www.ethiorussian.com/2007/03/12/relationship-coffee-a-transparent-approach/feed/ 0 Ethiopian Coffee and the Fair Trade struggle… a video depiction http://www.ethiorussian.com/2007/03/12/ethiopian-coffee-and-the-fair-trade-struggle-a-video-depiction/ http://www.ethiorussian.com/2007/03/12/ethiopian-coffee-and-the-fair-trade-struggle-a-video-depiction/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:10:00 +0000 ethiorussian http://ethiorussian.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/ethiopian-coffee-and-the-fair-trade-struggle-a-video-depiction/

The following short videos document the recent struggles that Ethiopian coffee farmers and their representatives are going through to enact a Fair Trade environment for the country’s biggest export.

Starbucks day of action
December 16th 2006, posted by Oxfam America

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N5wzr5xeWI]

Starbucks talks about coffee farmers in Africa
December 18th 2006, posted by Starbucks

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dteTrEM7mlM]

Starbucks invests in farmer communities
January 3rd 2007, posted by Starbucks

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHP-7lE9mpY]

Ethiopian coffee network legal issues
February 27th 2007, posted by Robert Winter, Arnold & Porter LLP, Counsel for Ethiopia’s trademark applications

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DiWK81j7fg]

A supporter voicing an opinion…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFQg9Eb2Eeg]

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