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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
12.01.2007 - 01:00am ET
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Starbucks to Open Regional Farmer Support Center in Rwanda
Company Continues to Expand its Commitments to the East African Coffee Community
(CSRwire) KIGALI, RWANDA and SEATTLE - December 1, 2007 - Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX)
chairman Howard Schultz announced today that the company will open a
regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Rwanda. The facility will
provide an opportunity for Starbucks to collaborate with farmers in Rwanda
and in the East Africa region, and demonstrates the company's continued
support for their efforts to expand the availability of their high
quality, specialty coffee worldwide.
"We are very excited to have a regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center
here in Rwanda. We look forward to working with Starbucks to offer
additional support to the coffee farming community here and in the
neighboring countries," said Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of
Rwanda. "This center will offer many new opportunities to enhance our
methods and produce even greater volumes of our high quality specialty
coffees."
The Rwandan center, like the one announced earlier this week to be located
in Ethiopia, will have an agronomist (agricultural scientist) on staff and
will be similar to the Starbucks Farmer Support Center established in 2004
in Costa Rica. The staff will work with East African coffee communities to
improve coffee quality and growing practices. They will also work to
increase the number of farmers participating in Coffee and Farmer Equity
(C.A.F.E.) Practices, Starbucks sustainable coffee buying guidelines.
Since the establishment of the company's Latin American Farmer Support
Center, Starbucks has seen improvements in quality evaluation scores, a 20
percent increase in yields per hectare, an 80 percent reduction in the use
of pesticides and a 5 percent increase in the suppliers' C.A.F.E.
Practices scores for participating growers in that region.
Schultz is joined in Rwanda by Cliff Burrows, president Starbucks EMEA
(Europe, Middle East and Africa); Dub Hay, Starbucks senior vice president
of Coffee and Global Procurement; and Sandra Taylor, Starbucks senior vice
president of Corporate Social Responsibility. During his visit in Rwanda,
Schultz will meet with President Kagame as well as visit a local coffee
farm.
"We are honored to have the opportunity to participate in the further
development of coffee farming practices in Rwanda and East Africa in
general. The fine coffees grown here are cherished by people around the
world, and Starbucks is extremely pleased both to support the farming
community and to share these delightful coffees with people across the
globe through our nearly 15,000 stores," said Schultz.
Starbucks is strengthening and deepening its engagement with East Africa,
with a special focus on new technical capacity building programs such as
the Farmer Support Center to help farmers produce the high quality coffee
purchased by specialty coffee buyers like Starbucks. Today's announcement
builds on the investments Starbucks has made in East Africa over the past
five years. This includes:
A commitment to double the amount of East African coffee purchased in
2006 by 2009.
More than $4 million to help East African coffee farmers improve
their communities through funding projects such as schools and bridges.
Programs with non-profit organizations such as CARE and WaterAid to
address rural development challenges in the region.
An additional $1 million into a program to provide access to low
interest loans to East African coffee farmers through the non-profit
lender Root Capital, for a total of $10 million in loans to coffee farmers
worldwide.
About Starbucks
Starbucks Coffee Company provides an uplifting experience that enriches
people’s lives one moment, one human being, one extraordinary cup of
coffee at a time. To share in the experience, visit www.starbucks.com.
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