tarbucks (SBUX.O : Quote, Profile , Research) plans to double African coffee purchases over the next two years and increase credit to farmers in the region to improve the quality of beans, a company official said on Tuesday.

The U.S. coffee chain giant bought around 300 million pounds of coffee last year, six percent of from Africa, Dub Hay, Senior Vice president of Coffee and Global Procurement, said.

"We are very bullish (about) the quality of the coffee coming out of the region," he said during a visit to Kenya.

"If you look at Rwanda for example, it had no specialty coffee a number of years ago...they are (now) producing some very good coffees and the same can be said for Burundi, Kenya, and the entire region," he added.

Starbucks buys coffee from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. It does not buy coffee from West Africa, he said.

The Seattle-based company intends to establish a help centre in 2007, at a location yet to be announced, to counsel farmers on how to grow high quality coffee. Hay said the firm would also provide additional loans.

"We are announcing another million dollars dedicated exclusively for east Africa," he said adding that the company had already issued micro loans worth $9.5 million to farmers through non-governmental organisations.

Source : Reuters