Producers told reporters Mexico had imported 84,226 60-kg bags of green coffee to date this year, and that the trade ministry was considering a request from Nestle to allow further robusta imports.

Mexico will import more than 300,000 bags of coffee in 1998, according to Coffee Growers Confederation executive director Juan Carlos Villareal. Last year it imported 177,124 60-kg bags of green coffee, he said in a document.

Mexico's 1997/1998 coffee output was about 4.8 million bags, of mostly higher quality arabica beans. Just some 150,000 bags of robusta are harvested in Mexico, producers said.

"Producers do indeed produce the amount of robusta that (the importers) require," confederation member Julio Pierre Audain said.

Mexican growers have bemoaned coffee imports, saying they are unnecessary and entering tariff-free. They saythe poor quality robustas have come from Ecuador, Brazil and Indonesia.