Starbucks announces fair-trade project

SEATTLE &Mac247; Mexican farmers will get better prices for their coffee and better links to the specialty-coffee market under a "fair trade coffee" collaborative project announced by Starbucks yesterday.

For coffee to be certified as fair-trade, a third-party monitor must confirm that the farmer has been paid a fair price. Starbucks is partnering with the Ford
Foundation, aid organization Oxfam America and CEPCO, a coffee producers'association in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, to launch the project.

Starbucks said the program will provide farmers with technical help, market information and product-quality feedback.