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Central American coffee producers gather to control export prices

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -- Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo urged Central American coffee producers on Monday to arrive at a joint policy to push up global coffee prices by staggering exports over the year instead of holding back exports.

"We are talking about a plan for Central American nations to have a common vision," Portillo told Reuters. "So that each nation doesn't act unilaterally in such a difficult world situation."

Portillo said he would discuss the export regulation plan with Central American presidents at a summit slated for the weekend in Guatemala City.

Oversupply has pushed world coffee prices to levels not seen since 1994.

Producers from the world's top coffee-producing agreed on a global retention plan proposed in May at a London meeting of the 14-member Association of Coffee Producing Countries (ACPC).

But the scheme has had no effect on prices amid speculation about who will and who will not actually hold back exports when the plan goes into full effect Oct 1.

Leaders of Latin American coffee producer groups are scheduled to meet on Wednesday in San Jose, Costa Rica, to discuss retention.

Brazil and Colombia, the world's biggest coffee producers, are in favor of retaining as much as 20 percent of global exports. But the nations of Central American are divided on the issue and of the five, only El Salvador and Costa Rica are in the ACPC and have agreed to retention.

Guatemala, the No. 6 producer in the world, Honduras and Nicaragua are not in the ACPC and Guatemala is a firm supporter of a plan to reschedule exports across the coffee cycle rather than holding them back altogether.

"Instead of exporting the bulk of our coffee in the second and third quarters, we would dilute exports (over the year) starting in October," Luis Arriaza, president of Guatemala's National Coffee Association (Anacafe), told Reuters.

Arriaza and Portillo both spoke on the sidelines of Anacafe's annual coffee congress for local and central American producers which began on Monday and continues through Tuesday.

Arriaza also said Guatemala wanted to see how other countries complied with retention, before staggering its own exports.

Arriaza said Guatemala would also attempt to raise domestic coffee consumption to try to avoid over supply.

Guatemala has exported 4.45 million 60-kg bags of the 4.6 million it expects to export this coffee cycle, which ends in September.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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