The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-24
COFFEE IMPORT
 FIGURES SHOW
 LARGE INCREASE

The people of the United States are paying over a million dollars a day for their coffee. The import va1ua- tion of the coffee entering the U. $. in the fiscal year which ends with next month will be over $300,000,00 says a statement by The National City Bank of New York. And when we consider that this import valua- tion is the price of the article in the country from which imported, it is quite evident that the added cost of freight, roasting, and distribution to the consumer will bring the total much above s365, 5,OO0,0oO, making the average for the year more than a million dollars a day against about one-third that sum two years ago.
 This enormous increase in the sums which the people of the U. S. are paying for coffee in 1920, as com pared with 1918, says the banks statement; results in part from an increase in quantity and in part to an increase in price. The quantity imported in the fiscal year which ends with next month will approximate 1,500, 100000 pounds against 1,052,- 900, ,000 two years ago, while the aver age import price in 1920 was 22.7c per pound against an average of 1-2c per pound in the fiscal year 1918, these figures being the average wholesale price in the country of pro- duction.
 While the average import price of coffee brought into the U. s. Tn the fiscal year 1920 is double that during I the war period and higher than in | any year in the history of the import | trade, the quantity imported has also gone incra3SjnG The | imports in the year ending with next month will approximate ], 300, 100000 | pounds against the former high rec
 ord of 1,322,0oo,000 pounds in 1917, l when the average import price was i less than half that of 1920.
 Whether this increased consump- | ton of coffee, irrespective of price, is ! or is not related to prohibition, it is 1 at least a fact that in both quantity i imported and price per pound the i first prohibition year breaks the rec 1 ord. The quantity imported in the {! current year, the first year of prohi- I bition, has increased 42 per cent over l the same months of last year, despite l the fact that the average import
 price is so per cent. higher than last year. The expectation expressed by ! the tea growers of the world that i prohibition would increase the quan- tity of tea consumed fsN9 not been re- alized, for the quantity of tea import 1 ed in this first year of prohibition 1 has decreased 20 per cent.
 i Most of this increase in the sums
 which we are paying for coffee has 1 gone, says the banks statement to the benefit of our neighbors in Latin America Of the S236 100000 sent
 out of the country to buy coffee in
 the nine months ending with March
 1920, S222,0O0,o00 went to Latin 1 America as a whole, and the remaind- CT chiefly to the Dutch East Indies.
 To South America the total was
 $195, 5,00o,Ooo of which S148,ooo
 went to Brazil against s47,ooo,0oO in the same months of last year, .s3o,-
 900, ,00O to Colombia against S13, ,O0O,-
 900 in the corresponding months of
 last year, and 100000 to Venez-
 uela against little less than S9,000,- :, 900 in the corresponding months of
 last year. The average import price
 of the coffee brought from Brazil in
 the nine months ending with March
 1920 was 22.7c per pound against
 11Sc per pound in the same months
 of last year.
 That this large increase in the
 quantity of coffee, inaported-at the . highest price per pound ever record i ed-was for the consumption of oul
 own people is evidenced, says the banks statement, by the fact that we ], have 're-exported this year only : per cent of the coffee brought in as
 against per cent re-exported last 5 year.