Bogota, Aug 27 - Colombian's new coffee chief on Thursday said the national federation had no plans for now to purchase shares in U.S. chain Starbucks Corp. as a way to better its distribution to the major U.S. market.

Previous director Gabriel Silva had said Colombia, the world's No. 3 exporter, and other coffee-growing associations in Brazil and Central America were considering purchasing a share in Starbucks to improve their distribution network.

"For now, the subject of buying shares is a closed subject," National Federation of Coffee Growers director Luis Genaro Munoz told reporters after he was elected into the post by the group's regional committees on Thursday.

Munoz, a federation veteran who says he will follow Silva's policy line, was competing against Luis Guillermo Echeverri, a Colombian representative to the InterAmerican Development Bank, and Juan Guillermo Angel, a central government advisor for San Andres island in the Caribbean.

"It will be my responsibility to ensure the continuity of policies that guarantee equality in the support from the federation to each and everyone of the coffee regions," Munoz said after winning the post.

Munoz won backing of 11 of the 15 coffee-producing regions who vote in the election. But he failed to win support from the provinces of Antioquia, Caldas, Cundinamarca, and Quindio, which account for 38 percent of the national production.

The new director must follow the success of Silva, praised for modernizing federation management while supporting growth of the Juan Valdez coffee chain brand, a crop renovation program and promotion of specialty coffees.

Colombia, the world's top exporter of high-quality soft arabicas, has seen its production slide due to bad weather and the crop program which replaces aging trees. Those factors have pushed up premiums for the country's beans.