Coffee Producers, Importers Seek G-8 Backing to Ease Glut

(Bloomberg) -- The International Coffee Organization will urge leaders of the Group of Eight countries, who meet this weekend in France, to support proposals aimed at easing a glut that threatens the livelihood of 25 million households.

"Commodities are on the agenda,"' said Pablo Dubois, head of operations at the International Coffee Organization, or ICO, in a telephone interview. ``Action is needed because the social costs of this crisis are excessive.''

The lowest coffee prices in 30 years have increased poverty, debt and unemployment in coffee-producing nations in Latin America and Africa. Production has been rising at 3.6 percent a year, while demand is growing at less than half that rate, according to the ICO.

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