"Based on what people have already committed, I would say 1.6 (million)," said Febec's secretary-general Francisco Ourique, stressing that the figure was still preliminary.

Brazil shipped 800,192 bags of green coffee in April 1998.

Ourique said March exports would probably finalise at 1.88 million bags, up sharply from the 739,064 bags shipped in March 1998. Earlier last week, Febec said it was anticipating a final March exports figure of around 1.8 million bags.

Brazil's coffee crop in 1998/99, currently being shipped, is widely thought to be in the record levels and the largest for some 10 years at 33 million to 35 million bags. The typical Brazilian crop year runs from July to June.

However, Brazil's biennial coffee cycle means that a lower production year normally follows one where output has been high.

The1999/2000 crop has been variously estimated at between 25 and 30 percent lower than in 1998/99.