Wider impact of the Initiative
The significance of Ethiopia’s drive to Trademark its finest coffees and create a new buyer-seller partnership goes beyond Ethiopia and beyond coffee. The initiative is set to change the very idea of what is feasible for coffee growing countries to do in order to improve their commercial prospects and financial returns. And recognition and support for developing countries to benefit from their intellectual property is set to become a new frontier in corporate social responsibility.
COMESA
We are dealing with the issue of improving the lives of millions of people," Sindiso Ngwenya, deputy secretary-general of the 20-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. "Make no mistake, (we) support Ethiopia because we are not only dealing with coffee but also with a wide range of products.
- Reuters 13th February 2007
Coffee brand management strategies can achieve greater long-term social impact by reducing market uncertainty and the ‘casino dimension’ of the current commodity markets. This Initiative aims to achieve a more proactive role for farmers in the wholesale and retail markets for their products.
This work requires a new relationship between buyer and seller and a sense of mutual responsibility. A new norm in corporate social responsibility is thus being set by establishing the direct link between coffee buyers and sellers, formally committing to work together in this new type of commercial and social compact to find a commercial strategy that is beneficial for all participants in the trading chain.
Ethiopia did consider another avenue, Certification Marks. CMs indicate and assure the coffee buyer of the origin of a specific sack of coffee beans. Yet this legal tool, while valuable, would not confer to Ethiopia legally binding rights and powers with respect to a relationship with the companies that trade and retail its coffees. With trademarks secured, the Ethiopian coffee sector can achieve more equitable leverage in this process of dialogue and planning. TMs give Ethiopian coffee growers and exporters rights and therefore opportunities they did not have before.
Ethiopian stakeholders, united as owners of the country’s fine coffees’ reputations and good image, are in a position to engage on a more equal footing with the international companies in developing awareness and value of the brands. They can also seek and ensure that a more equitable share of the retail value is returned to the farmers.