PRODUCER SPLIT HEATS UP COFFEE QUOTA TALKS

  Talks on the possibility of reintroducing
  global coffee export quotas have been extended into today, with
  sparks flying yesterday when a dissident group of exporters was
  not included in a key negotiating forum.
      The special meeting of the International Coffee
  Organization (ICO) council was called to find a way to stop a
  prolonged slide in coffee prices.
      However, delegates said no solution to the question of how
  to implement quotas was yet in sight.
      World coffee export quotas -- the major device used to
  regulate coffee prices under the International Coffee Agreement
  -- were suspended a year ago when prices soared in reaction to
  a drought which cut Brazil"s output by nearly two thirds.
      Brazil is the world"s largest coffee producer and exporter.
      Producers and consumers now are facing off over the
  question of how quotas should be calculated under any future
  quota distribution scheme, delegates said.
      Tempers flared late Saturday when a minority group of eight
  producing countries was not represented in a contact group of
  five producer and five consumer delegates plus alternates which
  was set up to facilitate debate.
      The big producers "want to have the ball only in their court
  and it isn"t fair," minority producer spokesman Luis Escalante of
  Costa Rica said.
      The majority producer group has proposed resuming quotas
  April 1, using the previous ad hoc method of carving up quota
  shares, with a promise to try to negotiate basic quotas before
  September 30, delegates said.
      Their plan would perpetuate the status quo, allowing Brazil
  to retain almost all of its current 30 pct share of the export
  market, Colombia 17 pct, Ivory Coast seven pct and Indonesia
  six pct, with the rest divided among smaller exporters.
      But consuming countries and the dissident producer group
  have tabled separate proposals requiring quotas be determined
  by availability, using a formula incorporating exportable
  production and stocks statistics.
      Their proposals would give Brazil a smaller quota share and
  Colombia and Indonesia a larger share, and bring a new quota
  distribution scheme into effect now rather than later.
      Brazil has so far been unwilling to accept any proposal
  that would reduce its quota share, delegates said.
      Delegates would not speculate on prospects for agreement on
  a quota package. "Anything is possible at this phase," even
  adjournment of the meeting until March or April, one said.
      If the ICO does agree on quotas, the price of coffee on the
  supermarket shelf is not likely to change sinnificantly as a
  result, industry sources said.
      Retail coffee prices over the past year have remained about
  steady even though coffee market prices have tumbled, so an
  upswing probably will not be passed onto the consumer either,
  they said.
  

