What Is The Agreement?

The goal of the Ethiopian Trademark agreement is to form a new partnership between Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee and the countless coffee roasters around the planet that purchase, roast and sell Ethiopia’s fines coffees. Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar/Harrar are very well known gourmet coffees in the industry. In the past, Ethiopian coffee producers and exporters have had few opportunities to work directly with brokers/importers and roasters.

Who Is Responsible For The Agreement

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) is responsible for this initiative along with the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Stakeholder Committee. The E.F.C.S.C. is made up of coffee producer unions, private coffee exporters and other organizations with direct responsibility for the development of the coffee industry in Ethiopia. Many coffee roasters that share this passion for Ethiopian coffees are joining the growing family of licensed distributors.

In February, 2007, the first historic meeting between Ethiopian Stakeholders and licensed distributors in more than sixty companies from across Africa, the United States, Europe and Asia took place. Forty seven Ethiopian fine coffee exporters as well as three coffee producers unions have signed the trademark agreement and joined the growing network of licensed distributors.

This past May, Ethiopia was chosen to be the featured country representing coffee at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual coffee conference. The Stakeholder Committee and the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office were on hand to answer the questions of companies wishing to join the growing network licensed distributors of Fine Ethiopian Coffees.