Dearer tea and coffee

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 2

Dearer tea and coffee

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 11. Consumers must brace themselves for further increases in the price of tea and coffee, the managing director of Faggs Products (Mr J. A. Calvin) said today.

The retail price of one type of roasted coffee has risen from $1.39 to $2.17 per lb in two price rises since last October, and Mr Calvin believes that severe crop failures, the political situation in Angola, commodity speculation, and other international problems will force the price still higher. On the London coffee market, the price of robusta coffee — used in instant coffee — has jumped from about SNZBOS to nearly $2565 a tonne since last August. Mr Calvin said this must also lead to increases in the price of instant coffee in New Zealand, which had already

been subjected to a substantial rise this year. Mr Calvin also predicted that the price of tea would rise. Tea prices were also being hit by inflation, increased shipping charges, higher labour charges and steeper costs of insecticides. Tea and coffee drinkers had been shielded for many years from steep rises in the cost of these commodities. "For example, coffee rose in price only from $1.06 in 1970 to $1.39 last October — which is certainly out of line with the rise in the general cost of living. People will just have to appreciate that the costs in this industry are finally catching up with others.”