Record dairy prices slow Kraft’s profit

US food company Kraft Foods blames a nearly 40% boost in dairy prices for a massive decline in the operating earnings of its core North American cheese and foodservice division, which saw its fourth-quarter profit fall by more than 53%.

Chief executive Irene Rosenfeld says the company’s price increases weren’t enough to keep pace with the rising commodities pressures and that the company would continue to raise prices in 2008, but expected the commodity prices to trail off in the second half of the year.
For the full year, Kraft’s profit fell 15% to $2.6 billion (