Serious situation brewing with coffee beans

World coffee carryover stocks at 'worrisome' level; Brazil stocks predicted to reach near-50-year low.

March 10, 2006: 12:23 PM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's 2006/07 coffee supply and demand are near a balance, although low carryover stocks in producing countries is "very worrisome," the head of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) said on Friday.

"Never before have we seen a situation in which producing countries' stocks are at such low levels," Nestor Osorio, executive director of the ICO, told a coffee industry conference on Friday.

By the end of March, carryover stocks in Brazil, the biggest coffee producer and exporter, are likely to be about 9 million 60-kg bags, down about 50 percent from the same period last year and the lowest since 1957, Osorio said.

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