Asia-Pacific

Starbucks to double coffee imports from East Africa

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-08 15:43

KAMPALA - Executives of the world's largest chain coffee shop, Starbucks Coffee Company, have arrived here to discuss strategies to develop Uganda's coffee sector.

Alain Poncelet, vice president for coffee, and Peter Torrebiarte, general manager of Starbucks' Farmer Support Center in Costa Rica, will meet government officials to discuss ways of improving the quality of Ugandan coffee exports.

A customer sits in a Starbucks coffee shop in New York, March 14, 2007.[Reuters]

Starbucks is the largest purveyor of specialty coffee in the world, with 13,000 coffee shops in 40 countries and regions.

Last year, the company bought coffee from 24 countries, including six in Africa - Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

In 2006, Starbucks paid an average of 3.12 U.S. dollars per kg for premium coffee beans, 36 percent more than the industry average commodity market price for coffee.

In February, the firm announced it planned to double its imports of coffee from East Africa over the next two years. It also planed to build a farmer support center staffed by a team of experts in soil management and fieldcrop production to help farmers increase their capacity to produce high-value coffee.

In addition, it wanted to provide the region's coffee farmers with increased access to affordable credit through a scheme called EcoLogic Finance.

The Starbucks team is expected to meet with top officials from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Uganda Coffee Development Authority and local exporters.

Statistics showed that as a major coffee producer in Africa, Uganda has seen its annual coffee production reduce from annually four million bags in 1996 to two million last coffee year and export earnings from 400 million dollars to 170 million dollars.