International Coffee Organisation (ICO) said on Monday the situation of coffee coming into 2001 remained one of abundant supply and prices which were extremely low when viewed historically. "In this respect, prices in real terms are now 60 per cent lower in nominal and 75 per cent lower in real compared with the price range of 120 to 140 US cents per lb maintained by the 1976 and 1983 international coffee agreements", a top ICO official said in Bangalore.
Speaking on the world coffee outlook for 2001, the London-based ICO's head of operations, C P R Dubois, told an international scientific symposium on coffee that although supply and demand were currently not far from balance, there had been increases in stocks in net importing countries in the last year.

"Moreover, trade estimates usually indicate a significant current global surplus and the FAO's long-term forecasts issued in 1999 projected a supply surplus of some 10 million bags by 2005, all factors which have helped depress the market", Dubois said. Referring to the recently negotiated International Coffee Agreement 2001, he said promotion of consumption had been reinstated as a key objective of the ICO, while promotion of quality was identified as a separate objective.
The symposium, being attended by several eminent coffee scientists from coffee producing and consuming countries, was organised by the coffee board to commemorate the platinum jubilee of the Central Coffee Research Institute located at Balehonnur in Karnataka's Chikmagalur district. Bureau Report