INDIA REDUCES EXPORT DUTY ON COFFEE

  India cut the export duty on coffee
  to 330 rupees per 100 kg from 600 rupees, effective March 23, a
  Coffee Board official said.
      The reduction should help India reach its coffee export
  target of 90,000 tonnes in fiscal 1987/88 ending March 31,
  against provisionally estimated exports of 75,000 tonnes in
  1986/87 and an actual 99,254 tonnes in 1985/86, he said.
      India is likely to press for international export quotas at
  a meeting of coffee producers in London this week because of
  depressed prices, he added.
      The International Coffee Organisation, which represents
  both consumers and producers, has so far failed to reach
  agreement on quotas.
      India feels it will be useful to have quotas now because
  the slide in prices is unlikely to be halted immediately, he
  said.
      Export quotas were suspended in February 1986 when market
  prices surged after a drought devastated Brazil's coffee crop.
  

