Coffee producers meet to study price surge

Coffee producers meet to study price surge

LONDON (Reuter): The Association of Coffee Producing Countries' (ACPC) technical group started a meeting yesterday aimed at addressing the recent surge in coffee prices and its impact on consumption.

The group, made up of representatives of El Salvador, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Uganda and Indonesia, could formulate measures to tackle the price escalation and ensure a steady supply pipeline to the market, ACPC officials have said.

ACPC President Rubens Barbosa of Brazil chaired the one-day meeting.

While no major decision is expected to emerge, traders are keeping a close watch in case the gathering yields crop updates.

The technical group is expected to report its findings and any necessary measures to the full 14-member ACPC council meeting which is not due to meet until May.

The council last met in Rio de Janeiro in late January when it decided to cut a further 1.3 million 60-kg bags of coffee from members' exports in the first six months of 1997.

World coffee prices had risen by more than 50 percent since early January on a combination of factors including forecasts of lower Brazil's upcoming crop and recent supply disruptions from Colombia.

But the market had started to come down after hitting a peak of 209.50 cents a lb basis May on the New York futures on March 5. It closed at 168.10 cents on Wednesday.