Coffee Turnabout

From now on U.S. citizens will drink better coffee-and less of it. Such was the sum & substance of coffee import figures which last week oozed out of Manhattan's pungent coffee district.

> In June the U.S. imported 909,000 bags of coffee, 24% less than in June 1941. (The U.S. guzzles well over 1,000,000 bags monthly, and U.S. stocks are down around 2,500,000 bags-a bare two months supply.)

> Brazil's inexpensive coffee (that makes up the bulk of most blends sold in the U.S.) is being imported in decreasing amounts, 842,000 bags in April, 635,000 in May, 348,000 in June. Of the 10,594,715-bag quota, only 6,181,559 had been landed in 8 1/2 months up to mid-June. Meantime Colombia's tasty mountain-grown coffee was imported to the tune of 330,991 bags last week, an alltime weekly record. Thus, for one week at least, Colombia beat Brazil 4-to-1, whereas the usual ratio is 2-to-1 in favor of Brazil. Imports of most Central American coffees are also up.

Reason for this turnabout: it is safer and easier to ship coffee 1,600 miles from Colombia to New Orleans than 6,000 miles up the Atlantic from Rio. But Brazil will not be the loser. Brazilian bigwigs in Sao Paulo last week announced that the Good-Neighborly U.S. would buy up all Brazilian coffee not shipped by September's end. That will give Brazil a credit of over $25,000,000 on U.S. banks and give the U.S. a credit of perhaps 2,000,000 bags in Brazilian warehouses.

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