International Coffee Organization

All limits on the export of coffee imposed under the International Coffee Organization will be suspended today in an attempt to reduce the soaring price of the commodity, a spokesman for the organization said Tuesday. The spokesman, Peter Knox, said that, with the International Coffee Organization's average coffee price at about $1.80 a pound, the 75-nation group would act under a rule mandating a suspension of export limits if the price remained above $1.5008 a pound for 45 days.

These are golden days for coffee grower Segundo Cardona and thousands of other farmers in Colombia. Global prices for his beans are close to 14-year highs and according to some analysts, may remain at or near these levels for years to come. The reasons include less than optimal harvests in top coffee-producing countries Brazil and Vietnam and growing consumption in major coffee-producing countries Brazil and Mexico as well as in traditional tea-drinking nations, including China, India and Russia.

The International Coffee Organization will present a plan to the World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank this week to help coffee growers diversify, the group's top executive said. ICO Executive Director Nestor Osorio said he will present a specific diversification program to the banks, which, if approved, will need only the signature of coffee authorities in producing nations to be set in motion.

The International Coffee Organization will present a plan to the World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank this week to help coffee growers diversify, the group's top executive said. ICO Executive Director Nestor Osorio said he will present a specific diversification program to the banks, which, if approved, will need only the signature of coffee authorities in producing nations to be set in motion.

Latin Americans Try to Raise Coffee Prices: Brazil, Colombia and Central American nations agreed to retain 20% of their coffee exports from Oct. 1 to lift world prices, officials said. Brazil's proposal for 20% retention was accepted at a meeting of top Latin American coffee officials after Colombia agreed to change its previous offer of simply limiting its exports to 13 million 120-pound sacks.

Survival of the international coffee agreement, one of the few commodity price-support pacts that still works, will be at stake as consumers and producers start talks in London today. Delegates say the 50 producer and 24 consuming member nations of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) must resolve major differences if the agreement is to be renewed beyond its expiration date next September.

It would seem to defy capitalist logic. The international price of coffee beans has plunged 60% in three years to about 50 cents a pound, the lowest level in decades. Yet java drinkers are paying more per cup, as much as $3 for a latte grande in New York or $5 a cup at London's Hilton Hotel, where the first World Coffee Conference is meeting. Coffee lovers are spending more, coffee farmers are getting less. How can that be?

Latin Americans Try to Raise Coffee Prices: Brazil, Colombia and Central American nations agreed to retain 20% of their coffee exports from Oct. 1 to lift world prices, officials said. Brazil's proposal for 20% retention was accepted at a meeting of top Latin American coffee officials after Colombia agreed to change its previous offer of simply limiting its exports to 13 million 120-pound sacks.

Three days of informal talks between coffee producers this week ended with no promise of new world coffee negotiations and no agreement--except to let the free market continue to rule. "The positions are still the same as they were in July," James Wapakabhulo, chairman of the International Coffee Organization executive council, told a news conference when the talks ended.

Survival of the international coffee agreement, one of the few commodity price-support pacts that still works, will be at stake as consumers and producers start talks in London today. Delegates say the 50 producer and 24 consuming member nations of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) must resolve major differences if the agreement is to be renewed beyond its expiration date next September.

Three days of informal talks between coffee producers this week ended with no promise of new world coffee negotiations and no agreement--except to let the free market continue to rule. "The positions are still the same as they were in July," James Wapakabhulo, chairman of the International Coffee Organization executive council, told a news conference when the talks ended.

Coffee futures prices declined sharply in nervous trading on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York despite the continuing drought in Brazil. The contract for delivery in March, on which there is no daily trading limit, plunged in heavy trading by more than 17 cents a pound, and other contracts were down the 6-cent limit.

Coffee futures prices took a nosedive Monday as hope waned for efforts to renegotiate international export quotas. On other markets, grain and soybean futures were mostly higher, most livestock and meat futures advanced and energy futures were mostly lower. The meeting in London of the International Coffee Organization appeared on the verge of breaking up without any agreement on export quotas for the 1986-87 season, said Sandra Kaul, an analyst in New York with Shearson Lehman Bros.