With the battle for coffee bean sources heating up, Starbucks (SBUX) has opened its second coffee support center in Africa, as it announced it would provide one for Rwandan farmers. It'll be based in the capital city of Kigali in 2008.
The first support center by Starbucks in Africa will be opened in Ethiopia, also in 2008.
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said about the support center initiatives, "We are buying ten times more coffee today than we did a few years ago ... That support centre will go a long way in helping us increase our purchase of Rwandan coffee."
Rwanda has some of the top grade coffee in the world, raised at high altitudes and rich volcanic soils by mostly small farmers.
Schultz added that the "This centre will help farmers elevate the quality of coffee, (making it) able to meet standards at the global market place which translate into more profits for them."
Starbucks already operates a similar center in Costa Rica, which will be the model they use to base the African coffee support centers on.
The battle for the business of coffee drinkers probably won't be won by business marketing, but by companies able to secure access to a continuing supply of beans. That's the impetus behind the Starbucks' strategy, and the key issue for meeting market demand in the years ahead.
For Rwanda, they're hoping to double their coffee output to 32,000 tons for 2008. Up from the 14,000 tons they sold in 2007.
Sponsored link: The outsourcing every manager requires - Tampa Locksmith
Comment Preview