Coffee behemoth Starbucks to build farmers' centre in Rwanda: company
Coffee behemoth Starbucks to build farmers' centre in Rwanda: company
NAIROBI (AFP) - US coffee giant Starbucks plans to build a regional support centre in Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced difficulty despite recent price spikes, it said at the weekend. "We are honored to have the opportunity to participate in the further development of coffee farming practices in Rwanda and East Africa in general," Howard Shultz, the chairman of the US coffee shop chain, said in a statement.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame welcomed the venture.
"This centre will offer many new opportunities to enhance our methods and produce even greater volumes of our high quality specialty coffees," Starbucks quoted Kagame as saying on Saturday.
Rwanda, where the centre will be set up next year, is emerging as a key grower of top grade coffee in Africa.
On Wednesday, Starbucks announced plans to build a support centre for Ethiopian coffee farmers, claiming an end to a long-running dispute with the east African country. The Ethiopian centre was the firm's first in Africa.
The Rwandan and Ethiopian centres will have an agronomist on staff and will be modelled on a similar centre set up in Costa Rica in 2004.
In 2005, the firm announced a three-year programme to train farmers in Kenya and Tanzania to produce high-quality coffee that earns maximum revenue while ensuring they conserve natural resources on and around their plantations.
Starbucks, a worldwide operation that has come to symbolize what critics deride as corporate globalization, and other similar large concerns have been accused in recent years of exploiting poor coffee formers.
The coffee maker has pledged to double by 2006 the the amount of coffee purchased in east Africa in 2006.
In addition, it will make available more than four million dollars to east African coffee farmers to improve their communities through funding projects such as schools and bridges as well as another one million dollars in low interest loans.
In 2003, the British charity Oxfam charged that firms like Starbucks were deliberately manipulating the world coffee market at the expense of some 25 million poor farmers around the globe.
NAIROBI (AFP) - US coffee giant Starbucks plans to build a regional support centre in Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced difficulty despite recent price spikes, it said at the weekend. "We are honored to have the opportunity to participate in the further development of coffee farming practices in Rwanda and East Africa in general," Howard Shultz, the chairman of the US coffee shop chain, said in a statement.Rwandan President Paul Kagame welcomed the venture.
"This centre will offer many new opportunities to enhance our methods and produce even greater volumes of our high quality specialty coffees," Starbucks quoted Kagame as saying on Saturday.
Rwanda, where the centre will be set up next year, is emerging as a key grower of top grade coffee in Africa.
On Wednesday, Starbucks announced plans to build a support centre for Ethiopian coffee farmers, claiming an end to a long-running dispute with the east African country. The Ethiopian centre was the firm's first in Africa.
The Rwandan and Ethiopian centres will have an agronomist on staff and will be modelled on a similar centre set up in Costa Rica in 2004.
In 2005, the firm announced a three-year programme to train farmers in Kenya and Tanzania to produce high-quality coffee that earns maximum revenue while ensuring they conserve natural resources on and around their plantations.
Starbucks, a worldwide operation that has come to symbolize what critics deride as corporate globalization, and other similar large concerns have been accused in recent years of exploiting poor coffee formers.
The coffee maker has pledged to double by 2006 the the amount of coffee purchased in east Africa in 2006.
In addition, it will make available more than four million dollars to east African coffee farmers to improve their communities through funding projects such as schools and bridges as well as another one million dollars in low interest loans.
In 2003, the British charity Oxfam charged that firms like Starbucks were deliberately manipulating the world coffee market at the expense of some 25 million poor farmers around the globe.
posted by sarfunnisha @ 5:12 AM
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