ICO COUNCIL ENDS IN FAILURE TO AGREE QUOTAS A special meeting of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) council failed to agree on how to set coffee export quotas, ICO delegates said. Producers and consumers could not find common ground on the issue of quota distribution in eight days of arduous, often heated talks, delegates said. Export quotas -- the major device of the International Coffee Agreement to stabilise prices -- were suspended a year ago after coffee prices soared in reaction to a drought in Brazil which cut its output by two thirds. Delegates and industry representatives predicted coffee prices could plummet more than 100 stg a tonne to new four year lows tomorrow in response to the results of the meeting.