Global
Exchange, Organic Consumers Association Voice Concerns About Starbucks'
Entry Into Mexico, Urge Consumers to Buy Fair Trade Coffee From
Mexican-Owned Coffee Shops
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- As Starbucks opens
its first Mexico-based store in Mexico City, Global Exchange and
the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) are urging consumers to
visit Mexican-owned cafes and ask for Fair Trade coffee. At the
same time, activists in the US, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia,
Israel and Mexico are preparing demonstrations to be held outside
nearly 400 Starbucks cafes during the OCA's Global Week of Action
September 21-28 demanding they brew and seriously promote Fair
Trade trade, organic coffee in all of their cafes.
While Starbucks continues to expand globally, coffee prices continue
to lie well below the cost of production. This has pushed millions
of coffee farmers into poverty and starvation, forcing many to
flee their farms for cities or other countries. During the first
quarter of 2001, as Starbucks celebrated a 41 percent increase
in profits, 500 families a week were leaving coffee farms in Chiapas,
Mexico to migrate north in search of work. Companies like Starbucks
are reaping windfall profits while paying as little as US$.50/pound
for coffee that retails for about US$11/pound, or about US$1 per
cup.
The coffee crisis gives new urgency to support the alternative
- Fair Trade. Fair Trade guarantees at least US$ 1.26/pound for
small farmers' harvests, and encourages sustainable growing methods.
A Fair Trade income allows coffee growers to afford basics like
health care and education. The Fair Trade system currently benefits
550,000 farming families in 21 countries, such as the Union of
Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region (UCIRI) in Oaxaca,
which has over 5,000 families. UCIRI has used Fair Trade revenues
for schools, health care services and strengthening their indigenous
culture. The cooperative has also helped create the region's only
public bus line and secondary school, a hardware and farm supply
center, cooperative corn mills, an agricultural extension and
training program, and accounting training.
Unfortunately, Starbucks has yet to support this responsible purchasing
option adequately. The company's Fair Trade volume in the United
States comprises only about 1 percent of total sales, lagging
far behind other industry leaders and far below the industry minimum
standard of 5 percent adopted by almost all of the 130 US companies
distributing Fair Trade coffee. Starbucks has signed an agreement
allowing them to sell Fair Trade coffee worldwide but it remains
to be seen whether Starbucks will offer Fair Trade coffee in Mexico
and increase overall Fair Trade purchasing. Melissa Schweisguth
of Global Exchange says "Mexicans who are concerned about the
coffee crisis should tell Starbucks that they will settle for
nothing less than Fair Trade coffee at all Starbucks stores. Those
who want to do the most for Mexico's economy and small coffee
farmers should buy Fair Trade from Mexican-owned coffee shops.
This will ensure that coffee revenues go directly to the small
farmers and business owners who desperately need a fair and steady
income, instead of crossing the border to fill the coffers of
large transnational corporations like Starbucks."
Chris Treter of the OCA stated, "Not only has Starbucks earned
average annual profit increases of 30 percent at the expense of
impoverished coffee growers in Latin America, now they have entered
their first coffee producing country in the Americas to sell coffee
produced throughout the world by farmers who are not even earning
enough to cover the cost of coffee production. The Global Week
of Action against Starbucks, September 21-28, is a response to
these unjust purchasing policies from concerned citizens throughout
the world."
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Media
Contact: Global Exchange, 415-575-5538;
Organic Consumers Association,
218-226-4164;
