Indonesia's Paian chairs ICO

Indonesia's Paian chairs ICO

LONDON (Reuter): The International Coffee Organization (ICO) Council has elected as chairman Indonesia's Paian Nainggolan, the chief of the country's Trade Research and Development Agency.

"The appointment underlines the importance of Indonesia as an up coming producer," Jan van Weijen, Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said after a week-long meeting of the ICO here over the weekend.

Van Weijen was himself elected as vice president of the ICO's Executive Board.

Philipose Matthai, chairman of the Coffee Board of India, was elected as vice chairman of the Council while the Britain's Tim Mordan, from the Trade Policy and Tropical Foods Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, was elected as president of the Executive Board.

The meeting also concluded with the organization granting observer status to an alliance of the world's leading coffee producers, the Association of Coffee Producing Countries (ACPC).

The move signals a fundamental change in the sometimes strained producer-consumer relationship and could help both camps strive towards boosting ailing world coffee consumption and calming volatile markets, ICO delegates said.

"This shows that we want to cooperate with consuming countries to promote stability and coffee consumption," said Roberio Oliveira Silva, secretary general of the ACPC -- who was on Friday given observer ICO status.