The increases for Kraft's coffees are 30 cents [image-nocss] per pound equivalent on ground coffees and 2-1/2 cents per ounce on instant, she added. The Maxwell House Cafe line of specialty soluble items is not included in the price change.
"Increases are due to sustained increases in the cost of green coffee," MacConnell told Reuters. Smucker also said the increase in price was driven by sustained increases in green coffee costs.
Smucker is considered a trendsetter in coffee prices after acquiring the Folgers brand in November 2008, and rival roasters like Kraft were expected to follow suit within days.
"The price hike is certainly justified. They actually held off on hiking the price," Judith Ganes-Chase of J. Ganes Consulting told the news agency. "They would've been justified in raising their prices months ago, based on the cash prices."
While the 9% increase is sharp, it is well below Smucker's 19% price hike to its 100% Colombian coffee in April 2009, when it responded to the sharp cost increase for beans from that country due to supply problems, said the report. Prior to this, the brand's most significant price increases took place in 1997 when the then-Folgers Coffee Co. hiked them by 29% and then nearly 10% a couple months later.
At the time, the increases were fueled by lower production in Central and South America and a decline in U.S. inventories to 20-year lows, the report said.
Orrville, Ohio-based Smucker is a leading marketer and manufacturer of fruit spreads, retail packaged coffee, peanut butter, shortening and oils, ice cream toppings, sweetened condensed milk and health and natural foods beverages in North America. Its family of brands includes Smucker's, Folgers, Dunkin' Donuts, Jif, Crisco, Pillsbury, Eagle Brand, R.W. Knudsen Family, Hungry Jack, White Lily and Martha White in the United States, along with Robin Hood, Five Roses, Carnation, Europe's Best and Bick's in Canada.With annual revenues of approximately $50 billion, Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods is the world's second largest food company, making products for billions of consumers in more than 160 countries. The company's portfolio includes 11 brands with revenues exceeding $1 billion: Oreo, Nabisco and LU biscuits; Milka and Cadbury chocolates; Trident gums; Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees; Philadelphia cream cheeses; Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings; and Oscar Mayer meats. Another 70-plus brands generate annual revenues of more than $100 million.
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