Coffee Organization to Push Diversification

The International Coffee Organization will present a plan to the World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank this week to help coffee growers diversify, the group’s top executive said.

ICO Executive Director Nestor Osorio said he will present a specific diversification program to the banks, which, if approved, will need only the signature of coffee authorities in producing nations to be set in motion.

Osorio said producers need to generate alternate forms of income if they are to survive crises like the one that saw prices sink to historic lows last October during a continued global coffee surplus.

The idea of diversifying coffee farms was a hot topic in the 1970s when another supply glut was depressing the global coffee market, Nestor said. But, he added, the issue was swept onto the back burner in the middle of discussions after a frost in Brazil, the world’s top producer, wiped out much of the surplus and prices rebounded.