Oversupply pressures coffee market

With Brazil and Vietnam pumping out coffee beans, some say only frost can stop trend.
August 4, 2003: 8:46 AM EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Reversing the world glut of coffee beans remains a dream for coffee producers. Three years of low prices have dragged many growers into poverty, poor maintenance and even the abandonment of their crops.

For most of the 1990s, production was lower than consumption, keeping coffee prices relatively buoyant.

But that changed when Brazil, the world's largest producer, sharply increased its output and newcomer Vietnam became a top producer. The resulting oversupply in the coffee market caused world prices for beans to plunge, cutting incomes for thousands of small farmers in Latin America and Africa.

To some, a frost in Brazil looks like the only solution.

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