at the average valuation of 10.6c. a pound
for coffee shipped during the calendar year is a substantial drop from
the 13.12c. a pound that was the average for the fiscal year 1921,
showing that the decline in values continued during the last half of the
calendar year.

Coffee imports in 1921 continued to run in about the same well-worn
channels as in previous years, according to the figures showing the
trade with the producing countries. The United States, as heretofore,
drew almost its whole supply from its neighbors on this side of the
globe; the countries to the south furnishing ninety-seven percent of the
total entering our ports. The three chief countries of South America
contributed eighty-five percent; and the share of Brazil alone was
sixty-two and five-tenths percent.

Brazil's progress to her normal pre-war position in our coffee trade is
rather slow, although she continues to show a gain in percentage each
year. Formerly we obtained seventy percent to seventy-five percent of
our coffee from that country; but war conditions, diverting nearly all
of Central America's production to our ports, reduced the proportion to
almost half. In 1919 this had risen to fifty-nine percent, in 1920 it
was somewhat over sixty percent, and in 1921 it attained a mark of
sixty-two and five-tenths percent. The actual amount shipped, which was
839,212,388 pounds having a value of $77,186,271, was about seven
percent higher than in 1920, which was 785,810,689 pounds valued at
$148,793,593; and about the same percent higher than that of
1919--787,312,293 pounds valued at $160,038,196. Although the actual
poundage showed an increase, it will be noted that the value fell off
almost one-half as compared with 1920, and more than one-half as
compared with the year before.

The real feature of the year, and perhaps the most interesting
development in the coffee trade of this country in recent years, is the
steady advance of Colombian coffee.

In the year before the war, we obtained from our nearest South American
neighbor 87,176,477 pounds of coffee valued at $11,381,675, which was
about ten percent of our total imports. In 1919, the first year after
the war, this amount was almost doubled, being 150,483,853 pounds with a
value of $30,425,162. In 1920, there was a further increase to
194,682,616 pounds valued at $41,557,669, and in 1921 the high mark of
249,123,356 pounds valued at $37,322,305 was reached. This was a gain of
twenty-eig