Turning a Profit with Green Coffee and Fair Trade

From World Resources Institute

Starbucks Coffee shops have become so ubiquitous that its baristas are now waiting to take your order in China's ancient Forbidden City - to the dismay of many of Beijing's residents. But in the United States, the coffee giant is getting some unexpected, foreign competition.

On a downtown street in Atlanta, Café la Selva, part of an up-and-coming Mexico-based coffee chain, has opened its doors and is doing brisk sales. The shop is one of several started since 1997 by a group of Mexican small investors working together with a nonprofit organization of peasant coffee farmers. With gourmet coffee gaining in popularity in Mexico, La Selva has been making inroads around the country. And the coffee franchise has big plans to expand in Mexico as well as in the United States and Europe.

"We now have 19 shops - we just opened another one in Mexico City a few days ago," said Emiliano Quintero, one of the company's managers. "We have a shop in Spain, one in Atlanta, and we are planning on starting another. In the next 5 years we would like to start 50 more cafés around the world."

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