With coffee growers around the world receiving an ever-shrinking share of the value of their coffee at retail, wouldn’t it be good to hear of ways where this trend might be able to be reversed? In Ethiopia, where farmers in despair are actually abandoning some of the world’s finest coffees, a recent development is offering hope that we may be able to turn this trend around and move towards a fairer model of coffee trading.

In 2004, a solution was sought which would ultimately return a fairer share of the value of coffee to the farmers who grow Ethiopia’s beans – allowing them higher prices which would consistently cover their costs of production and give them a little more income besides. From this exercise, the Ethiopian Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative was born. This trademarking initiative – comprised of cooperatives, private exporters, the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office and the Ethiopian government – has worked to secure global trademarks which govern the use by coffee companies of such iconic Ethiopian growing region names as Harrar and Yirgacheffe when marketing their coffee.

The trademarking exercise has not gone without a hitch – Starbucks created a significant hurdle by initially opposing the plan before finally capitulating due to public condemnation earlier this year – but with trademarks now secured in 28 countries, Ethiopia is steadily building a network of licensed distributors across the world. Most encouragingly, many coffee companies have already agreed to sign licensing agreements with the aim of helping to increase the prosperity of Ethiopian coffee farmers.

Here in New Zealand, Ethiopia has not yet trademarked the use of its most well-known regional coffee region names (such as Harrar) but this will happen shortly. Once it does, any coffee roasters in our country marketing Ethiopian coffee will be asked to sign up to agreements.

How successful do we think this development will be? The early signs are encouraging. We’re now at the beginning of the first harvest following the launch of the trademarking initiative and Ethiopian coffee prices have jumped substantially from the previous year. Prices may yet settle back – time will tell – and there will inevitably be some involved in the coffee industry who will seek to reduce their usage of Ethiopian coffees in order to continue maximizing their own profits. But if the plans works - with a significant number of coffee companies worldwide willing to recognize Ethiopian coffee farmers’ rights to a fairer share of the value derived from the sale of their coffee - then the world will be a fairer place. By paying more for the same coffee, Western companies would have relinquished a little of the power back to impoverished growers, which is what fair trade is all about.

For more information on the Ethiopian Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative you can visit www.ethiopiancoffeenetwork.com