Talks Try to Save Coffee Prices Pact
An international agreement that stabilizes world coffee prices could fall apart at last ditch talks Monday, leaving the commodity at the mercy of a free market in which prices are likely to tumble.
Low prices would squeeze debt-laden Third World producers but might eventually mean a cut in supermarket prices for coffee drinkers, traders said.
More than a year of negotiations have failed to bridge a wide gulf between Brazil, the biggest producer, and the United States, the largest consumer, over how to continue a price support pact that regulates 90% of world coffee trade.
At the heart of the dispute is how to stop producers from dumping coffee at cheap prices in countries outside the 74-nation pact.
Talks Monday at the International Coffee Organization, or ICO, in London represent a last-ditch attempt to rescue the accord, which expires in September. The last round of talks collapsed earlier in June.
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