SEATTLE — At Starbucks’ shareholders meeting in March, Rwandan President Paul Kagame made a special appearance to tell investors how devoted the company is to the welfare of coffee farmers. He also said he’d love for Starbucks to open a coffee shop in his country.
Instead, Rwanda is getting a coffee-farmer support center, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz told Kagame over the weekend during a tour of coffee-growing countries in East Africa, where the company has promised to buy more coffee. Officials do not disclose how much coffee Starbucks buys in Africa, but Latin America is the source for most of the 300 million pounds it buys each year.
The center will help farmers improve their coffee quality and growing practices so that Starbucks will buy more of their beans.
Starbucks pays more for coffee than farmers can get on the open market. Last week, Schultz announced plans for a separate support center in Ethiopia, which will serve farmers only in that country.
The Seattle Times
