Colombia and Honduras propose coffee growers' alliance

The leaders of Colombia and Honduras met yesterday in the heart of the coffee-growing region of Colombia in an effort to promote an international alliance of producers of the grain amid a near collapse prices in the markets.

President Iván Duque of Colombia and Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras said that 25 million families worldwide depend on coffee crops.

Colombia is the world's third biggest exporter of coffee and Honduras the fifth. Both countries produce the prized arabica strain of coffee. Producers in both countries say that current market prices do not cover their costs.