Pre-War Average Annual Imports of Coffee into the United States by Countries
Fiscal years: 1910–1914
Total pounds: 899,339,327
Another valorization campaign was launched by Brazil in 1918, and a third in 1921. Early in 1918, the São Paulo government bought about 3,000,000 bags. Subsequent events caused a sharp advance in prices, and at one time it was said that the holdings showed a profit of $60,000,000. The Brazil federal government appointed an official director of valorization, Count Alexandre Siciliano. A federal loan of £9,000,000, with 4,535,000 bags of valorized coffee as collateral, was placed in London and New York in May, 1922.
European consumption during the last century has been marked by the growth of imports into France and Germany; these being the two leading coffee drinkers of the world, aside from the United States. Germany held the lead in European consumption during the whole of the nineteenth century, and also in this century until all imports were stopped by the Allied navies; although, in actual imports, Holland for many years showed higher figures. Both Holland and England have acted as distributers, re-exporting each year most of the coffee which entered their ports. In the last half-century, the chief consumers, in the order named, have been Germany, France, Holland, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium. However, with the removal of the duty on coffee in the last-named country in 1904, imports trebled; and Belgium took third place. The table at the top of this page shows the general trend of the trade for the last seventy years.
| Trend of European Coffee Consumption For Seventy Years | |||||
| Year | Germany (pounds) | France (pounds) | Holland (pounds) | Aus.-Hung. (pounds) | Belgium (pounds) |
| 1853 | 104,049,000 | 48,095,000 | 46,162,000 | 44,716,000 | 41,270,000 |
| 1863 | 146,969,000 | 87,524,000 | 30,299,000 | 44,966,000 | 39,305,000 |
| 1873 | 215,822,000 | 98,841,000 | 79,562,000 | 71,111,000 | 49,874,000 |
| 1883 | 251,706,000 | 150,468,000 | 130,380,000 | 74,145,000 | 62,846,000 |
| 1893 | 269,381,000 | 152,203,000 | 75,562,000 | 79,438,000 | 52,046,000 |
| 1903 | 403,070,000 | 246,122,000 | 78,328,000 | 104,200,000 | 51,859,000 |
| 1913 | 369,347,000 | 254,102,000 | 116,749,000 | 130,951,000 | 93,250,000 |
Most of the coffee for these countries has for many years been supplied by Brazil, even Holland bringing in several times as much from Brazil as from the Dutch East Indies. Special features of the European trade have been the organization, in 1873, and successful operation, in Germany, of the world's first international syndicate to control the coffee trade; and the opening of coffee exchanges in Havre in 1882, in Amsterdam and Hamburg, in 1887: in Antwerp, London, and Rotterdam, in 1890; and in Trieste in 1905.
The advance of coffee consumption in the United States, the chief coffee-consuming country in the world, has taken place through about the same period as the advance of production in Brazil, the chief producing country; but it has been far less rapid. From 1790 to 1800, coffee imports for consumption ranged from 3,500,000 to 32,000,000 pounds. The figures in the next column show the net importations of coffee into this country since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The chief source of supply, of course, has been Brazil; and the commercial and economic ties created by this immense coffee traffic has knit the two countries closely together. Brazil is probably more friendly to the United States than any other South American country, as shown by her action in following this country into the World War against Germany. She also grants the United States certain tariff preferentials as a recognition of the continued policy of this country of admitting coffee free of duty. The chief port of entry of coffee into the United States is New York, which for decades has recorded entries amounting from sixty to ninety percent of the country's total. Since 1902, New Orleans has shown a big advance, and in 1910 imported some thirty-five percent of the total. The only other port of importance is San Francisco, where imports have been increasing in recent years because of the growth of the trade in Central American coffee.
| Coffee Imports, United States, for 120 Years Net Imports | |||
| Year | Pounds | Year | Pounds |
| 1800[x] | 8,792,472 | 1906 | 804,808,594 |
| 1811[x] | 19,801,230 | 1907 | 935,678,412 |
| 1821[x] | 11,886,063 | 1908 | 850,982,919 |
| 1830[x] | 38,363,687 | 1909 | 1,006,975,047 |
| 1840[x] | 86,297,761 | 1910 | 813,442,972 |
| 1850 | 129,791,466 | 1911 | 869,489,902 |
| 1860 | 182,049,527 | 1912 | 880,838,776 |
| 1870 | 231,173,574 | 1913 | 859,166,618 |
| 1880 | 440,128,838 | 1914 | 991,953,821 |
| 1890 | 490,161,900 | 1915 | 1,051,716,023 |
| 1900 | 748,800,771 | 1916 | 1,131,730,672 |
| 1901 | 809,036,029 | 1917 | 1,267,975,290 |
| 1902 | 1,056,541,637 | 1918 | 1,083,480,622 |
| 1903 | 867,385,063 | 1919 | 968,297,668 |
| 1904 | 960,878,977 | 1920 | 1,364,252,073 |
| 1905 | 991,160,207 | 1921 | 1,309,010,452 |
[x] Fiscal year ending Sept. 30; all other years end June 30.