Stocks and quotas

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Date Issued
1994
Language
en
Type
News Item
Accessibility
Open Access
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Citation
CTA. 1994. Stocks and quotas. Spore 50. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/49342
External link to download this item: http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta50e/
Abstract/Description
Two international agreements (one on coffee, the other on cocoa) were based on broadly similar principles and were set up in the mid-1960s. Their aim was to stabilize prices around a figure negotiated between producer and consumer countries and...
Notes
Two international agreements (one on coffee, the other on cocoa) were based on broadly similar principles and were set up in the mid-1960s. Their aim was to stabilize prices around a figure negotiated between producer and consumer countries and each agreement had a structure written into it which would allow it to function successfully. For coffee this was a quota system. Each year the International Coffee Organization (ICO), which was charged with the administration of the agreement, assessed world demand. Dependent on this, each exporting country was given an export quota (in coffee tonnage) which it promised to respect. As a result some sort of balance between supply and demand was achieved. Cocoa operated a buffer stock system. When prices reached their floor (a figure negotiated between producers and consumers), the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), whose job it was to manage the agreement, bought cocoa on the international market, until supply was short and prices rose again. Conversely, when prices went higher than a pre-agreed figure, ICCO released cocoa from its stocks back onto the market.
Subjects
CROPS;
Organizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
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