You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 22, 2007.
There’s an Associated Press story about the Christian East African and Equatorial Development Trust, which helps Ugandan coffee farmers produce and market their product at a fair price. Working in one of the poorest countries on the planet, the group has helped farmers earn a higher profit on the coffee, most of which goes back into community projects like water wells. The organization’s official website says its process is better than fair trade, because it “controls all phases of the supply chain” ensuring “100% of the profits go back to the community“.
A number of economic factors are forcing local Ugandan coffee producers to sell their assets to foreign companies, and now international coffee giant Starbucks is the latest and biggest player to move into the African country’s coffee production, reports Ugandan newspaper The Monitor.
Moreover, the article notes that Ethiopia’s case “should be treated as an eye opener for Uganda that intends to do business with Starbucks or any multinational for that matter“. Starbucks and the Government of Ethiopia were recently involved in a dispute over coffee trademark issues. The article says that with such a high poverty level, the Ugandan government should also look into using as much of its resources as possible to negotiate a favorable deal with the coffee giant.
