Overview : Ethiopia is home of world’s finest coffee brands. To date, the country has three internationally registered brands named Harrar®, SIDAMA® and Yirgachaffee®. These coffees have a unique flavor and aroma that distinguish them from coffee of other countries and even from other coffees in Ethiopia. This has made the country earn strong reputation for its heritage coffees which command a very high retail price in the international market. However, it is only 5 to 10% of the retail price that actually goes to Ethiopia while most of the profit is shared by distributors and middlemen in the marketing sector. Consequent to the scanty return to coffee producers, there have been instances where farmers abandoned coffee production due to low returns and engaged in growing other profitable cash crops. Seeking to narrow down the gap between the retail price and the return to the producers, the Ethiopian government is trying to use a range of intellectual property rights (IPRs) as a tool for differentiating their coffee in the market place so that they can achieve higher returns. In 2004, the Government launched the Ethiopian Fine coffees Trade marking and Licensing Initiative to provide a practical solution to overcome the longstanding divide between what coffee farmers receive for a sack of their beans and what retailers charge for that coffee when they sell it in retail outlet in different countries. The Initiative has been organized and run by the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Stakeholders Committee (the Stakeholder Committee) – a consortium comprising Ethiopian Intellectual property Office (EIPO), Ministry of Trade (MoT), cooperatives, private exporters and as well as other concerned government bodies. The EIPO took the leadership of the Initiative and began working on identifying a mechanism which would lead to a greater share for the country’s coffee growers. The Initiative also intended to generate high retail prices for Harrar, Sidama and Yirgachaffee – the three most famous coffee brands of Ethiopia. For detailed information, please refer to Annex I- Terms of Reference (ToR) |