Niche Ankole Breed

Harnessing market forces and allowing developing countries to benefit from intellectual property rights are keys to creating fairer and more equitable trade. Developing countries can now tap intellectual property rights to increase export revenues and improve the security of that income. The Ethiopian Government strategy on branding their coffee by entering licenses with the American Coffee powerhouse Starbucks saw the price of coffee at farm-gate increasing from 50cts to 1.5 USD. One key aspect of the Ethiopian experience is that they worked from within the modern intellectual property system to help poor farmers.
Between 90-95 percent of product value is taken by the distribution chain of products that come from poor nations. Only a few producers have any real control over their products. Ethiopia set out on a mission to challenge that. Its coffee sector launched a plan to take better advantage of its intellectual property rights. Ethiopia first applied for the trademark registrations of its specialty coffee brands in the United States, Canada, Japan and other countries. It succeeded in registering several, including Harar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe. It also began negotiating with coffee roasters to sign agreements acknowledging the right of Ethiopians to control these brands. The licenses entered with Starbucks permits it to use and promote Ethiopian coffee brands in markets both where trademarks exist for the brands as well as where they may not. Under the deal, farmers instead would be able to base their export prices more closely on the retail value of their coffees.