Evening star., 1914-11-05
Effect of Price
on Consumption

crease III price
would have no effect in curt:liing con-
sumption. lpon this belief was based
The Brazilian governments scheme for
the valorization of it's coffee crop 1t
was held that overproduction of coffee
in Brazil had brought the price down
TO the point where there was no profit
in coffee growing. 1t was believed !
that by holding the crop with govern
ment aid and fixing higher price, the /
growers could obtain a larger profit !
and at the same time sell just as much /
coffee,
The ValoriZation partly success !
full, in that prices were raised. The ;
Brazilian government had to adopt very /
strenuous measures to prohibit the in ,
crease of the coffee acreage, and some- |
times it went SO far to destroy huge /
amounts of coffee. But the basic theory (
that increase in price would not affect +
consumption. especially in wealthy |
America. was proved false.
In 1902, the average wholesale price !
of coffee in the United States was 6.4 !
cents pound. In the same year the I
per capita consumption 1884 |
pounds. Last year. the average price !
of coffee in this country was 13.S per !!
pound, but the per capita consumption !
had dropped to $50 pounds. thus show /!
ing that the increase of price operated /!
almost in direct ratio to decreased con- !
sumption.
If the per capita consumption had !
continued at the same rate as in 1902
we would have consumed last year
more than q billion and half pounds /,
of coffee, or a little more than 60 per |
cent of all the coffee grown in the |
world.
The coffee crop for the last season |
was the largest ever known, with the |,
single exception of
Next to Largest the season of 1906 /
r.~, .c c.r OF. The total crop |
Olop VI CoHee. amounted to 49,
$4,000 bags. or 2,55s,000.000 pounds
OF this Brazil alone produced 13,S16,000
bags, or about "a per cent of the total.
Brazil sustains the same relation to I
the worlds production of coffee that
the United States bears to the world s
production of cotton, and it is interest
ing to note that the abnormally large
crop of 1906, when Brazil produced
100000 bags in excess of the entire
annual consumption of the world. was
the occasion of the first great national
valorization scheme. Whether not
the United States will follow this ex-
ample with respect to cotton is now an
interesting question.
Whereas Brazil's production-in mil
lions of pounds-reaches 1850, its near
est competitor. Venezuela. produces
only l34. 1t is followed closely by Co
lombia with 123, and the other coffee
producing countries follow in order:
Guatemala. with 81; Salvador. with IS;
the Dutch East Indies, with "a; Haiti.
with 48: India, with 90, and Costa Rica,
with 2S millions of pounds.
1t is interesting to note that Porto
Rico, which produces 49,000.000 pounds,
l,rJf |
to the United States. Porto Rican cof.
fee is of very high quality and brings
a much higher price than Brazilian cof-
fees. Practically all of it goes to
France, Spain and Cuba, where its pc
culiar flavor is especially appreciated.
Hawaiian coffee is also of very high
quality and fetches a very high price,
but the production is quite limited. The
Philippines formerly produced a great
deal of coffee. but their production
now amounts to practically nothing.
* X
AS for consumption, as has been said,
the United States leads all the world,
consuming more
U. S. Leads World than billion
in Coffee Use. lions , of II bounds ,,1,1
the coffee consumption of the world Is
led by the United States with 1,001, fol-
lowed by Germany with 81: France.
with 25i: Austria Hungary, with 131:
Netherlands, with 1:0: Belgium, with
.11S; Sweden, with IS; Italy, with 63;
Argentina, with 33; Spain. with 80;
Great Britain, with 20; Russia, with
%, and the other countries still smaller
amounts. 1t is apparent that popula-
tion has relatively nothing to do with
coffee consumption, for tea drinking
Britain and Russia together have twice
the population of the United States, but
consumes only about per cent as
much coffee as we do |
Estimates for the crop of 1915 indi-
cate that there will be short crop.