World coffee producers and consumers seek to pull coffee industry from slump

KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer Monday, September 15, 2003

(09-15) 12:21 PDT BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) --

Three heads of state and delegates from around the world will attend a coffee summit in Colombia this week aimed at lifting the industry from a ruinous slump caused by a surplus of low-quality coffee beans.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe were to address the annual gathering of the International Coffee Organization on Tuesday in the Spanish-colonial walled city of Cartagena.

Uribe told reporters in Bogota Monday he would seek all coffee-consuming countries to rejoin the ICO, which is an intergovernmental body of 45 exporting countries and 18 importing countries. The United States, the world's biggest coffee consumer, withdrew from the ICO in 1993 after a dispute over quotas.

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