PERU COFFEE CROP UNAFFECTED BY RAINS

  Recent heavy rains have not affected the
  Peru coffee crop and producers are looking forward to a record
  harvest, the president of one of Peru's four coffee cooperative
  groups said.
      Justo Marin Ludena, president of the Cafe Peru group of
  cooperatives which accounts for about 20 pct of Peru's exports,
  told Reuters a harvest of up to 1,800,000 quintales (46 kilos)
  was expected this year. He said Peru exported 1,616,101
  quintales in the year to September 1986.
      A spokesman for the Villa Rica cooperative said flood
  waters last month had not reached coffee plantations, and the
  crop was unaffected.
      Floods in early February caused extensive damage in Villa
  Rica, whose coffee cooperative exported 59,960 quintales last
  year, according to the state-controlled coffee organisation.
      Marin said the rains would only affect the coffee crop if
  they continued through to next month, when harvesting starts.
      He said Peruvian producers were hoping for an increase this
  year in the 1.3 pct export quota, about 913,000 quintales,
  assigned to them by the International Coffee Organisation, ICO.
      He said Peru exported 1,381,009 quintales to ICO members
  last year with a value of around 230 mln dlrs, and another
  235,092 quintales, valued at around 35 mln dlrs, to non-ICO
  members.
  

