The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-25
Coffee Broker
Calls Present
Prices Artificial

Washington (LPA)-There's nc
shortage, and no valid reason for
the high price of coffee, Sen. Guy
Gillette's subcommittee investigat-
ing prices was told by Angus Mac
key. He ought to know. He's beer
in the business as years, and his
father founded the n. Y. Coffee
and Sugar Exchange. Present
prices, he said, are artificial and
everyone in the coffee trade will
tell you the same thing"
The American consumer, said
Mackey, is at the mercy of Brazil
ian government export controls
and Brazilian spectators. The U.
S. coffee business is in chaos, he
said, because of the scare stories
about crop-failure in the chief cof
fee country, Brazil, and the specu
lation of Brazilians who have raked
in millions of dollars in the past
nine months.
Mackey told the committee he'6
be happy TO see the price back tc
around 60 cents pound for
vacuum pack, because present
prices are weaving people away
from coffee" He told of a friend ir
Chicago who is chain store man.
ager, reporting coffee sales off IS
per cent. People are drinking less
coffee, more tea or milk. More anc
more restaurants are charging {
dime a cup. 81 don't think the pro
ducers realize this" he said. 'They
are expending $2,000,000 year
advertising coffee. From high
of 20 million bags year right
after World War ii, Americans
have cut down since prices scared
to a present rate of 100000
bags.
AS one step to prevent recur-
renee of the wild price rise, Sen.
Gillette has just introduced bill
to subject the coffee and sugar
traders to the supervision of the
Commodities Exchange Admins
tration of the Agriculture Depart
ment.
Committee counsel Paul Hadlick
reported that one Brazilian firm
Escriptorio Suplicy-held 81 pei
cent of all key coffee contracts OF
the New York exchange at the end
of March. This outfit, whose Gus
toners are mainly coffee produc
ers in Brazil, cleaned up more thai
$3,000,000 at the expense of the
u. S. coffee drinker in nine months
according to testimony heard by the
committee earlier. The Gillette bill
would enable the public and Other
traders to learn of manipulations
of this sort, and perhaps woul6
serve to prevent its happening in
the future.
Mackey told the committee the
only thing that would cause s
shortage between now and year
hence would be heavy frosts ir
Brazil between now and the end OF
June. However, the Brazilian gov
ernment controls coffee exports
and during the past week has ann
ounced that only about six millior
bags from the new crop will be
available for the u. S. in the next
year. There are another six million
bags of old coffee available for U.
S. consumption. There is also ar
"alarmingly high" stock of coffee
in Columbia, as well as in othel
coffee-producing countries, Mackey
said.
Since all trading on the Newl
York exchange centers around thel
price charged for a particular quail
ity of coffee shipped out of Santos
Brazil, the U. S. roasters are still
at the mercy of the Brazilian spec
ulators. Even if there's plenty ofl
coffee, if it's held back in Brazil
the prices could remain high in the
u. S.
ness; J. Allen Frear (Del.) who
was reported in Utah.
yINI ~ 4 Il