Starbucks to expand menu with more fair-trade coffee

SEATTLE — Starbucks Coffee said yesterday that it will expand its offerings of fair-trade-certified coffee and will donate $1 million to coffee farmers in the developing world.

The company said it will buy 1 million pounds of fair-trade-certified green coffee over the next 12 to 18 months. Fair-trade coffee is certified by a third party to have been purchased at a fair price from indigenous farmers.

Fair-trade coffee will be featured as the "coffee of the day" in all company-owned U.S. stores on the 20th of each month starting in spring 2002, the company said, adding that it will encourage college and university accounts to convert to fair-trade coffee.

Starbucks said the $1 million donation is designed to help farmers make improvements to their farms and will be administered by the Bethesda, Md.-based Calvert Foundation.