Starbucks' growth could drain coffee supply

By Hugo Miller, Bloomberg News
May 29, 2004

Starbucks Corp. may face a shortage of premium quality coffee to keep pace with store expansion plans in coming years.

"Long-term, we have concerns the supply will not be sufficient for our premium coffee needs," said Alain Poncelet, head of Starbucks Coffee Trading Co., in an interview in Lausanne, Switzerland. "We will need much more high-quality coffee in the future."

Starbucks buys its beans, grown in Latin America, the Pacific region and East Africa, through its Lausanne-based trading subsidiary.

The Seattle-based company plans to buy 225 million pounds of Arabica beans in 2007, "about 1.5 to 2 percent of current world production," up from 30 million pounds this year, Poncelet said.

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