New-York tribune., 1907-10-20
CHOCOLATE CANDY UP.
FOREIGN MAKERS DID 1T.
Due to Boosting the Price of Cheap
Cocoa Beans by Germans.

Sweet are the uses Of adversity." commented
a who told yesterday that brand OF
well known cake chocolate had been advanced five
cents for the erstwhile 1O-cent cake packet. And
inquiries for other standard brands OF ths
cloyinE brown stuff brought forth the information
that all sorts of chocolate had gone up. to keep
pace. perhaps. With the high prices Of real neces-
sares. So while the chocolate furnishes the sweet
ness. the prices see TO the adverse condition for
the short purse. The reasons for this were ex-
planned yesterday by who is a purchaser
for probably the largest factory that uses cocoa
beans in this country. According 70 him. Arert-
cans are being squeezed for a change by a COM
bination of foreign manufacturers.
About year ago." he said. "a coterie OF Ger
man cocoa buyers in Lisbon got together and cor
nered the market for Accra beans These are the
lowest grade cocoa beans. and produced IN
Africa year ago the Accra beans were selling
for from to 70 cents pound, according TO the
quality. At the time the richest beans that
were handled mostly by firms in Hamburg. were
from is to % a pound The Lisbon syndicate
had the cheap field itself and raised its prices
high that many manufacturers Of medium
grade chocolate products found they could mako
about much profit besides making vastly bet
Ger line of sweets. by purchasing the high grade
beans. When the Accra beans had gone TO IS or
II cents pound the makers OF cheap chocolate
cakes and other confections were hit very hard,
especially in Europe
But there was worse to come. According to
German trade papers. the Lisbon merchants. who
were Germans. got into touch with the handlers
of cocoa in Hamburg, also Germans Whether
they formed a trust not don't know, but
the fact remains that in the last three months
the high grade beans have jumped 70 Is cents a
pound. The cheap beans about 20 cents. The
manufacturers Of the sort OF goods that sell az
the highest prices have been able to get along
without raising their figures TO retailers
in the case of cake chocolate and powdered choco-
late or cocoa. Their percentage OF profit has been
cut down on other goods. but they have stood
for IT,
.,1,e man -No turn o,. r,e5ir,r1 and low priced
products. however. have suffered. There are sew
eral large firms IN New York Boston and Phila-
deIpha that have stopped making the cheap dipped
chocolates and cake chocolates Others have raised
their prices to the retailers. who. IN turn. have
added from 10 10 cents pound on the prices or
the goods 70 the consumer.
In this country however. the manufacturers
have not been driven to the lengths taken BY many
big German, French and English candy makers
Our correspondents abroad have Informed Us that
agents for the big houses there are soliciting re-
taiIers to avoid featuring the chocolate confec-
tions and push sugar candies instead Their
idea is Of course to thus decrease the demand OF
the public for chocolate that the manufacturers
will not be called upon TO buy much OF the cocoa
beans from the syndicate. A somewhat similar
method has been followed in New York by one firm
that makes both high grade and low grade chocO-
lates This firm has told each retailer that IL Will
sell to him only as many pounds Of cheap choCo-
lates as he purchases of their high grade goods.
You see they are still making profit on their high
grade goods. but the low grades are oeIIS soiu dI
cost a slight loss.
The cocoa brokers and dealers will say that
there are short crops and that the syndicate does
not exist The cocoa crop reports OF the countries
throughout the tropics all round the globe
show that the worlds crop for 1905 was 2Ss.oO0eOo
pounds In 1906 the crop was 600 0f0 pounds
Take the case OF Para, Brazil. from which an ex-
Celent quality Of cocoa bean comes For eight
months in 1906 the official reports show that the
crop 10000 pounds. Fo- the first six months
in 1907 there were 165o.0oo pounds produced Tho
figures of this years production will not be obtain
able for many months. but II is fact that Ham
burg is the greatest cocoa handling port in tbs
world. while the Lisbon dealers have almost all
the cheap grades IN their hands The prices here
are fixed by the few big dealers over there. since
little South American cocoa is shipped directly TO
the United States
Several downtown cocoa brokers declared that
they were informed the crops were short, but ad-
mitted that their foreign principals had been rais
ing the rates for nearly year. InqJ SeS made
yesterday az several confectionery and G-us stores
developed the fact that two we'll known brands OF
Swiss chocolate have been raised 25 per cent in
tail price and small cakes OF milk chocolate have
been raised from 30 50 per while the 20 and
20 cent chocolate creams have gone up 10 cents
pound.