MILD COFFEE GROWERS TO MEET IN GUATEMALA
A large group of "other milds"
coffee-growing nations will hold talks in Guatemala next month
to map their strategy for next September's meeting of the
International Coffee Organisation (ICO).
    Mario Fernandez, executive director of the Costa Rican
coffee institute, said delegates from Mexico, the Dominican
Republic, Peru, Ecuador, India, Papua New Guinea and five
central american nations will participate in the two-day
strategy session beginning May 4.
    The main topic will be reform of what many producing
countries perceive as the ICO's unfair distribution of export
quotas, Fernandez said.
    He said Costa Rica would press for quotas "based on the
real production and export potential of each country in the
past few years" and to distribute quotas based on "historic"
production levels rather than recent harvests and crop
estimates.
 Reuter
