Leading U.S. coffee roaster Folgers, owned by J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM), on Friday announced an increase to their items containing 100% Colombian coffee, the company and trade reports said.

The increase in Folgers' Colombian blends come after real purchasing prices in Colombia surged to 12-year highs this week as both stocks in origin and certified Colombian stocks in U.S. and European warehouses were reported to dry up.

"Effective April 3, we will increase the list price on new orders of all Folgers mainstream 100% Colombian items by an average of about 19%," the company said in a note passed on to traders, a copy of which was forwarded to Dow Jones Newswires.

The company said the price increase didn't apply to the popular Folgers retails blends such as Millstone, but was a particular response to steep price increases to beans from Colombia after a harvest shortage that has persisted for close to a year.

"The increase is only for the Folgers 100% Colombian blends, which come in three different sizes and the price for these items will increase by an average 19%, taking effect today," said Smucker spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher.

"The cost increase is due to the increase in Colombian prices because of supply problems there," Badertscher told Dow Jones Newswires.

Colombia's 2009 mitaca coffee harvest, or mid crop, for which picking is scheduled to start this week, is expected to drop between 20% and 30% after continuing bad weather and excessive rains damaged flowering and led to lower yields, leading exporters and traders say.

If the estimates hold, this will add crop losses of between 1 million and 1.5 million bags in Colombia's current 2008-09 crop cycle.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of mild washed arabica coffee, with annual output of between 11.5 million and 12.5 million 60-kilogram bags in recent years, and is the third-largest producer overall after Brazil and Vietnam.

-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; (52-55) 5001-5725; maja.wallengren@dowjones.com

(Holly Henschen contributed to this report.)