Edible Products. 



mi 



[June 1907. 



Unfortunately, however, the crop is far larger than was ever anticipated. 

 Estimates that were considered reliable last July put the probable yield of Brazil 

 coffee for 1906 at about 12,000,000 bags, whereas there is every probability now that 

 it will exceed 18,000,000, and in face of this prices have fallen hopelessly. Since 

 August last, quotations have receded full 10s. per cwt. 



It seems doubtful, therefore, whether even the full limits of £15,000,000, 

 if drawn upon, will be sufficient to maintain prices at their present rates, and 

 we have also the unwelcome news that differences are beginning to arise among 

 the several States that are party to the Convention as to their respective positions. 



The attainment of a price that is remunerative to coffee planters will 

 probably be considered a legitimate object for a Government such as Brazil, whose 

 interests are so closely bound up in the article, but as the price of everything 

 depends on two factors, the supply and the demand, it occurs to us to inquire 

 whether it would not be cheaper and better to attack the problem of increasing 

 the demand instead of artificially diminishing the supply. 



The scheme that has be6ti adopted is an ^heroic one, and deserves a measure 

 of success which will meet with the gratitude of coffee planters throughout the 

 world ; but considering that the price of every article is at least a question of demand 

 as well as of supply, we may legitimately inquire what attention is being devoted 

 to this side of the question. The powers taken in the Taubate Convention include 

 the restriction or discouragement by means of discriminating taxation of the 

 exportation of coffee of inferior grades, the furtherance of the development of the 

 present markets, and eventually the establishment of national standards and the 

 creation of coffee exchanges ; but we have as yet heard of no actual movement 

 to exercise these powers. It is notorious that the United Kingdom's consumption 

 of coffee is abnormally small. As against an average for the five years 1899 — 1903 

 of 2| lbs. per head per annum consumed in Austria, 5 lbs. in France, 6i lbs. in 

 Germany, 9| lbs. in Belgium, 11 lbs. in the United States of America, and 18i lbs. 

 in Holland, the United Kingdom makes the miserable showing of under | lb. 



Our contemporary, the Grocer, in a recent able review, asks the cause of 

 the poor demand, and how it can be stimulated. It answers in the word "quality." 

 Poor quality is undoubtedly responsible, and that is principally accounted for by 

 the legalised adulteration with chicory. It is hardly credible, but nevertheless 

 true, that a mixture of 90 per cent, chicory and 10 per cent, coffee may be legally 

 sold in this country, provided that it is sold as a " mixture of coffee and chicory," 

 and the words "chicory and coffee" are in character of equal size on the label. 

 Even this is not the worst. Acorns, parsnips, barley, and any vegetable matter, 

 in fact, not actually poisonous, may be used in the same way if a Government 

 stamp of id. per | lb. be affixed to the label. Small wonder if the housewife who 

 buys such a concoction, if she does not throw it away in disgust, is discouraged 

 from buying any more. 



We protect butter— a select Committee of the House of Commons agreed 

 last year that the butter trade was being ruined by adulteration and drastic 

 legislation is proposed to prevent that- Why should we not do the same with 

 coffee ? The vegetable fats used for blending with butters are at least not harmful 

 to the stomachs of the people, but chicory, acorns and parsnips possess none of 

 the valuable properties contained in coffee, and the sale of them at 8d. per lb. and 

 upwards is surely as legalised a fraud as selling margarine as butter. Herein we 

 think lies a valuable field for work. An organised campaign for educating the 

 British public into asking for pure coffee, and seeing that they get it, would cost 

 but a fraction of the £11,000,000 that is being cheerfully raised for the Valorisation 

 scheme. The United States last year increased their already heavy consumption 

 of coffee by 36 lbs. per head, A similar increase in the United Kingdom would 



