Some 1,000 delegates from 77 countries are meeting for three days to examine how changing weather patterns will affect production over the next five years, organizers said.

Coffee producers say they are getting hammered by global warming, with higher temperatures forcing growers to move to higher, cooler, and more prized ground, putting their cash crop at risk.

"There is already evidence of important changes" said Nestor Osorio, head of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), which represents countries that export or import the beans.

"In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries, five times more than in the 25 years before," he said.

Sipped daily by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, coffee is one of the globe's most important commodities, and a major mainstay of exports for countries from Brazil to Indonesia.

But producers are in a panic over the impact of warming on their livelihoods, saying they are being forced to seek higher growing grounds even as they face increased competition for resources with farmers and energy firms.

"Land and water are being fought over by food and energy producers," said Osorio, "we need to make an assessment to guarantee the sustainability of and demand for coffee production."

Osorio said that there was a strong global demand, "growing at more than two percent per year," a rate that producers have difficulty keeping up with, in part because of labor and fertilizer costs.

In 2009, global production of coffee beans reached 123 million bags, which each weigh 60 kilos (132 pounds). That was 25 million more bags than in 2008.

But ICO figures show that production in Latin America dipped last year, largely due to poor weather, and producers say they are struggling to stay afloat.

In Colombia, one of the world's largest producers, production slumped 30-35 percent, while Costa Rica and El Salvador struggled to recover from poor harvests in 2000-2005.

The National Coffee Association of Guatemala -- a regional leader -- said production in nine Latin American countries was expected to fall 28 percent in the first three months of this season.

The presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, all coffee-producing nations, are scheduled to speak at the event.

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