General Foods Adds 40 Cents To Wholesale Prices of Coffee
General Foods Corp., the nationÛªs largest coffee roaster, yesterday boosted wholesale prices for ground coffee by 40 cents to a record $3.71 a pound and raised the list price of soluble brands by 10 to 18 cents an ounce.</br></br>The General Foods pricing action, effective immediately, marked the third increase on its ground coffee within 30 days. The company last raised prices on its solubleÛÓinstant and freeze-driedÛÓcoffees Dec. 16.</br></br>In White Plains, N.Y., a General Foods spokesman attributed the latest price increase .to a 388 per cent rise in the average price of green beans since a frost destroyed 73.5 per cent of BrazilÛªs 1076 coffee crop in 1975. Brazil, the worldÛªs largest coffee producer, supplies 60 per cent of-all U.S. coffee imports.</br></br>Before the frost, a one-pound can of ground coffee sold at retail for $1.27. Prices now are hovering at $3 in most U.S. supermarkets.</br></br>The General FoodÛªs move to $3.71 a pound eclipsed Folger Coffee Co.Ûªs wholesale list price of $3.68 a pound, which had been the highest in the nation. Folger, the second largest roaster, lifted prices by 40 cents to