On my line: Starbucks, number 1 American of the coffee-muffin. On my left: Ethiopia, sixth world producer of coffee and first producer and exporter of Africa, supported by ONG altermondialist Oxfam. And a beautiful brawl for the protection of the rights of ownership of the three local varieties of coffees the most appreciated.

Thursday, the Ethiopian government showed the American company to despoil its coffee producers. Ethiopia country of 77 million inhabitants where nearly 43% of the population with less than 1 dollar per day lives deposited in the United States, in 2005, a request for recording of marks for its most known coffees: harar, sidamo and yirgacheffe. A means of increasing in a consequent way incomes generated by the coffee: approximately 90 million dollars moreover per annum, is an increase of 25%, according to estimates' of Oxfam. “To make safe the property of Ethiopia on these names would allow the sector coffee, producers and co-operatives included, to gain more”, argues, in Addis-Abeba, the spokesman of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Solomon Abebe. As much money which would return to the 15 million Ethiopian living coffee. This “black gold” represents nearly 60% of national exports, and the European Union, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States are its principal customers.

To block. But at the end of August, the request for the sidamo and the harar is rejected, following the protests of the NCA, the American association of the coffee. It on the other hand is accepted for the yirgacheffe, less sold in the United States. According to the Ethiopian government and Oxfam, Starbucks makes very to block this certification. “Starbucks intervened by the means of the American national association of the coffee, of which he is a very important member, near the American Office of the marks and patents, which caused the decision of this organization to refuse in Ethiopia its request on names sidamo and harar”, shows Solomon Abebe.

The American giant highly defends himself to want to despoil the local coffee producers. “Starbucks forever sought to block the efforts of the Ethiopian government to protect certain names”, indicated the company in an official statement, Thursday. According to Addis-Abeba, to deposit the mark would make it possible to the producers to sell their coffee pound approximately 2 dollars, against going prices of 60 centimes to 1,20 dollar currently. A trifle for Starbucks, whose sales turnover of 7,8 billion dollars this year is 75% higher than the interior product gross Ethiopian… In its gravers in the United States, the package of coffee sidamo is sold 20 dollars. “More than one legal conflict, it is a moral problem, argues Abera Tola, representative of Oxfam in Ethiopia. To date, Ethiopia receives between 5 and 10% of the price the consumer. ” For ONG, while being opposed to a intellectual property, Starbucks seeks to protect its own interests. “Starbucks very knows well that, if Ethiopia deposits the marks sidamo and harar, in the long term, the company will have to pay more for the coffee that what it pays today. And then this business creates a precedent. If Ethiopia carries it, other producers of coffee and suppliers of Starbucks are likely to start the same type of step”, estimates Abera Tola.