Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) paid way, way more per pound for its coffee in 2006, the company will announce this morning -- more than any other major coffee company (according to Starbucks' own claims, anyway). In 2005 and 2006, the average commodity market price paid for coffee was $1.04 per pound; and, it's certain, far less for The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)'s Folgers brand or Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE:KFT)'s Maxwell House tinned coffee.

Starbucks (the company reports with obvious pleasure) paid a premium price of $1.42 per pound in 2006, up from $1.28 per pound in 2005. In doing so, the company believes it allows coffee farmers to make a profit, and gives them a "sustainable livelihood." The company also reported it had increased its percentage of coffee purchased under purchasing guidelines developed with Conservation International -- C.A.F.E. Practices -- to 53% of its total, or 155 million pounds.

This, while certainly grand, is not an indication that Starbucks is perfect. I'm certainly a fan of sustainability, even if it's trumpeted loud and proud by the corporation which practices it. In late 2006, Starbucks was roundly decried for objecting to Ethiopia's attempt to secure trademark protection for its Sidamo and Harar beans.

It's great that Starbucks is moving in the direction of better trade practices and more fair treatment of hundreds of thousands of farmers in third-world countries around the globe. However, the company needs to go all the way. I'll be chatting later today with Dub Hay, senior vice president coffee, Starbucks Coffee & Global Procurement -- and hopefully, finding out what the company will do to reduce the double-standard impression.

Coffee rose to over $1.00 per lb. in May and CEO Washington Rodrigues of Ipanema Coffees predicted prices will stay there 'til September or later because of "tight supply" he said in an informative interview (via easybourse.com) by Kenneth Rapoza of Dow Jones Newswires last month. So far they have, mostly: (NYBOT:KC). Rodrigues also sees international prices rising "in the near future, but worries the dollar will cut into [Ipanema's] margins, already some of the best in Brazil."

Though many think of Brazil first when it comes to countries that produce coffee, beans from that market have never been a major part of Starbucks' [SBUX]  offerings. In fact, Ipanema Coffees is the U.S. co.'s only current Brazilian supplier of coffee, selling them 200,000 bags of green coffee a year.

(For some inexplicable reason it's suddenly sweater-wearing weather again here in Seattle today, and so maybe that is why I keep finding myself surfing South American websites.)