Play Fair Starbucks
Update: 20 June 2007
Oxfam Celebrates Win-win Outcome for Ethiopian Coffee Farmers and Starbucks.
They signed a distribution, marketing and licensing agreement today that ends their trademark dispute and brings them together in partnership to help Ethiopian coffee farmers. Oxfam welcomes the agreement that has the potential to give farmers a fairer share of the profits for their coffee brands.
Video: The Ethiopian coffee farmers thank you for your support 
About the campaign
For every cup of coffee sold by coffee chain stores, poor farmers in coffee-growing countries like Ethiopia only earn about 3 cents. Yet the coffee industry makes billions of dollars - Starbucks alone has already made more than $5.8 billion in net revenue this year.
To give its 15 million farmers a better cut of the profit, the Ethiopian government has asked Starbucks to sign an agreement that recognises Ethiopia's legal ownership of the names of its coffees. Despite its much-publicised commitments to farming communities, Starbucks has not taken the Ethiopian request seriously.
Why is it important?
By owning the rights to its fine coffee names, Ethiopia can help its farmers negotiate a better price, potentially increasing income for the country's coffee industry by an estimated $88 million a year. This would help lift millions of farmers and their families out of poverty, helping them to send their children to school and access healthcare.
ACT NOW
Send an email to Jim Donald, Starbucks CEO
AND also ACT LOCALLY to Make Trade Fair
The Starbucks issue is just an example of one of the unfair trade practices which Oxfam Ireland is campaigning against. Let Irish politicians know that you want to Make Trade Fair.
Thank you
Oxfam Ireland Campaigns team
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