Planet Bean Worker Co-op Signs Historic Coffee Agreement With Ethiopia

Representatives from the Washington and Ottawa Ethiopian Embassies were in Guelph September 18, 2007 to sign a historic trademark agreement with Planet Bean Coffee. The agreement developed after a prolonged battle between Ethiopia and coffee giant Starbucks over the trade mark rights to use the names of coffees originating in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee.

In 2005 the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark its most famous coffee names, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names would enable Ethiopia to capture more value from the trade, by controlling their use in the market and thereby enabling farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price. Starbucks attempted to squash the application. A battle ensued between the coffee giant and Ethiopia which was joined by organizations led by Oxfam. Eventually Starbucks backed down.

"It's a little like Walmart deciding what the French in Bordeaux can put on their wine labels," commented Bill Barrett from Planet Bean, " the Ethiopians have been growing and drinking coffee longer than anyone on earth, I think they should control the rights to their own coffee origins."

Planet Bean is the first Canadian coffee company to sign the new agreement with the Ethiopian government allowing the coffee roastery to use the names. The company is one of the first 100% certified fair trade coffee roasters in Canada and has been purchasing coffee from Ethiopia since 2002.