ICCO MEMBERS ACCEPT BUFFER STOCK PRINCIPLES

  International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)
  producers and consumers accepted the principles of a compromise
  proposal on buffer stock rules as a basis for further
  negotiation, delegates said.
      The buffer stock working group then asked ICCO Executive
  Director Kobena Erbynn, who wrote up the draft compromise, to
  flesh out details of the principles with the assistance of a
  representative group of delegates, they said.
      The working group broke up for the day, into a smaller
  group of five producers and five consumers to discuss
  administrative rules and into the group headed by Erbynn to
  hammer out buffer stock rules details, delegates said.
      Delegates said many differences of opinion still have to be
  ironed out. "Whenever we start getting into details the clouds
  gather," one delegate said.
      Erbynn is likely to present fleshed out details of the
  buffer stock rules proposal to the working group early
  tomorrow, delegates said.
      The principles of the draft proposal included establishing
  an offer system for buffer stock purchases rather than a posted
  price system, a limit to the amount of non-ICCO member cocoa
  that can be bought, and differentials to be paid for different
  varieties of cocoa comprising the buffer stock, delegates said.
  

