ICO COUNCIL ENDS IN FAILURE TO AGREE QUOTAS

  A special meeting of the International
  Coffee Organization (ICO) council failed to agree on how to set
  coffee export quotas, ICO delegates said.
      Producers and consumers could not find common ground on the
  issue of quota distribution in eight days of arduous, often
  heated talks, delegates said.
      Export quotas -- the major device of the International
  Coffee Agreement to stabilise prices -- were suspended a year
  ago after coffee prices soared in reaction to a drought in
  Brazil which cut its output by two thirds.
      Delegates and industry representatives predicted coffee
  prices could plummet more than 100 stg a tonne to new four year
  lows tomorrow in response to the results of the meeting.
  

