New coffee production quotas aimed at stabilizing...

New coffee production quotas aimed at stabilizing prices and improving the availability of choice grades were adopted by coffee-producing and consuming nations belonging to the International Coffee Organization. Delegates said the new deal is very complicated but is primarily designed to keep the average price of coffee--currently $1.14 a pound--above $1.15 and below $1.45 in the 1988-89 marketing year that began Saturday. It calls for a global export quota--the organization’s means of price control--of 56 million bags for 1988-89. One bag equals 132 pounds.