At the end of the week, a Starbucks-Ethiopia joint press statement made it out to the press. Starbucks has widely circulated this document on its website and through emails. The desired outcome is misleading the unsuspecting public. The joint press release from Ethiopia and Starbucks, no matter how tactfully drafted, shows that Starbucks has not changed its position. It is disappointing that Ethiopia would put its name on this release, which leaves the misleading impression that it has accepted Starbucks’ rejection of its trademarks. Of course, Ethiopia cannot force Starbucks to accept the trademarks. But was it necessary to publicly accept this rejection? Wouldn’t it have been better to issue separate statements?
This outcome looks like a public relations victory for Starbucks. The company said it would no longer oppose Ethiopia’s trade mark applications, which it has aggressively done, and denied. It has offered charity and some technical assistance to buy good will, and made promises to buy more coffee in Ethiopia. It claims to have the welfare of the farmers in mind. If it really had the farmers in mind, it would pay them a fair price based on what they sell the coffee to their customers.
Will Starbucks buy more coffee from Ethiopia? Starbucks refuses to reveal how much coffee it buys from Ethiopia today, and since it buys through third parties, it is impossible to know the quantity. It will be impossible to verify a claim that they increased their purchases. In other words, Starbucks is making an empty, unverifiable promise.
Starbucks says it will support technical assistance to improve the quality of the coffee produced in Ethiopia. But this will help Starbucks more than it will help the farmers. Starbucks is expanding and needs more high quality coffee. It will make big profits if the farmers increase their production of this coffee. The farmers, however, will continue to get the same small percent of the profits. It is unacceptable that Ethiopia would put its name on such a press release. Still, it should issue its own press release with an account of what has and hasn’t gone right. But what has exactly happened last week? [Read more..]