
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995                   TAG: 9507100076
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MEXICO CITY                                 LENGTH: Short

COFFEE NATIONS TO MEET AS PRICES KEEP FALLING

A six-week free fall in coffee prices has sent major producing nations to Bogota, Colombia, for an emergency meeting today.

Premium coffee growers Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Colombia have already suspended exports in an effort to shore up prices, which in the last three weeks have tumbled 16 percent.

Brazil, the biggest grower, has not signed on to the deal. The Brazilians have been invited to the meeting in hopes they can be persuaded to join the organized export suspension.

Brazil has announced independently that it will hold 1 million bags of coffee off the market from its usual 17.6 million-bag crop.

Analysts said consumers won't benefit any time soon from the price plunge. Unroasted coffee beans account for just a fraction of the retail price, and roasters meanwhile are selling beans they bought at higher prices.

-Associated Press

by CNB