[So far the price on Millstone has not dropped.]

SPILLING THE BEANS

The Associated Press

Mexicans seek to stem plunge in export prices

By José Antonio Jiménez THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Coffee growers from throughout Mexico ground 63,000 sacks of low-quality beans into fertilizer as part of an international effort to halt plunging coffee prices.

The coffee destroyed this week, weighing about 8.4 million pounds, came from 56 regions of the country, chief among them the southern state of Guerrero, one of Mexico's major coffee-growing regions. Mexico exports about 1 million sacks of coffee each year.

"This action complies with the commitment Mexico made along with Central and South American countries and is a firm message to the world that we do what we say we will do," said Roberto Giesseman, president of the Mexican Coffee Board, as coffee producers and a public notary stood by to record the event in this Pacific Coast resort city.

Mexico pledged to reduce its coffee exports by 5 percent each year as part of an agreement reached earlier with the International Coffee Organization, an intergovernmental body of 45 exporting countries and 18 importing countries.

"This low-quality coffee is the trigger behind the drop in prices," said Nestor Osorio, director of the London-based group's executive committee, who attended the event in Acapulco. "But now we are cutting back on shipments."

All together, 45 coffee-exporting countries have promised to reduce exports by 5 million sacks, or about 4 percent of the 120 million sacks expected to be produced worldwide during the 2002-03 harvest, which began Oct. 1, Osorio said.

Producers expect to harvest 8 million more sacks this year than last, he said.

The international relief agency Oxfam reported in September that 25 million coffee farmers around the world face ruin because of collapsing prices and a glut of low-quality beans.

The report said that world supplies exceed demand by 1.2 billion pounds per year, while the poorest countries' share of the market is shrinking.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2002