Thursday, December 2, 2010

Kraft v Starbucks. Does Fairtrade win ?

Today we read about Starbucks stepping up their efforts to stop Kraft selling Starbucks brand coffees through the world's biggest grocery store outlets, so they can go back to doing it themselves or hopefully with a more ethical partner.
Ironic that Kraft, which recently bought the big Cadbury fairtrade brand, now stands to lose the big Starbucks fairtrade brand. Clearly fairtrade plays absolutely no major part in the Kraft thinking, which is what any industry expert, or for that matter dog on the street, has always known.
Contrast that with a 'pure-as-the-driven-snow' motive behind Oromo Coffee Company where Ethiopian refugees in UK are bringing top quality Ethiopian organic fairrtade coffee from the home based communities direct to the public more so they can just have independence from the state benefit system, than to make a profit at all !

The average board director at Kraft, of course, has never actually set up a business, prefering to read about them in far away business school books, relying on money and contacts to fast track them to corporate riches, and the protection of legions of dispensable junior staff who bear what little responsibility Kraft recognises for real customer demands.
So, today, we take our hats off to the likes of Oromo, and the motivation that has got them going.

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