An application has been filed with the apex bank and its clearance was being awaited eagerly, the sources said. Global Trust Bank is the third to seek RBI permission to become an institutional clearing member at the coffee futures exchange, run by Coffee Futures Exchange of India (COFEI) Limited.

COFEI has already cleared applications of Vysya Bank and ABN Amro to become institutional clearing members and forwarded them to RBI.

The domestic coffee futures exchange is eagerly awaiting RBI clearance to the two banks to become the exchange's institutional clearing members (ICM) for improving its turnover and liquidity.

Lack of an ICM at the COFEI had led to only one hour daily trading at the exchange, which at present witnessed a trade turnover averaging 100 lots of 600 kg of coffee each.

The sourcessaid Global Trust Bank, which is currently an institutional clearing member at the international commodity exchange for pepper in Kochi, was interested in being involved in clearance at the proposed international castor oil and domestic cotton exchanges in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, government and the coffee sector have presented different picture on India's coffee production during 1997-98 season (December-November).

The government, going by coffee board's estimates, has put the production figures at a record 2.42 lakh tonnes.

However, the industry says the production could be nearly 2.50 lakh tonnes going by the export trend.

COFEI chairman Ashwin Shah said already about two lakh tonnes of coffee had been exported this season with Robusta making up 1.4 lakh tonnes and Arabica the rest.

Taking into consideration that domestic consumption was 50,000 tonnes, production could be easily 2.5 lakh tonnes, he said.

Commerce ministry sources, when asked about industry estimates, said there could have been acarryover stock from last season and it could have been utilised.

The production estimate for this season is despite coffee board fixing it at a conservative 2.31 lakh tonnes. The growers had contended the figures and said it would not be more than 2.10 lakh tonnes in view of the crop being hit by pest.