Kraft CEO committed to premium coffee

Kraft Foods Inc remains committed to selling premium coffee, despite the anticipated loss of its business with Starbucks Corp , its chief executive Irene Rosenfeld said recently. She told Reuters it was too early to discuss how Kraft might use money it hopes to get from Starbucks, which wants to end a partnership whereby Kraft distributes bagged Starbucks coffee to supermarkets and other retailers.

* Says single-serve coffee market will remain key

* Expects to get paid for Starbuck's termination

Kraft Foods Inc remains committed to selling premium coffee, despite the anticipated loss of its business with Starbucks Corp , its chief executive said on Tuesday.

CEO Irene Rosenfeld told Reuters it was too early to discuss how Kraft might use money it hopes to get from Starbucks, which wants to end a partnership whereby Kraft distributes bagged Starbucks coffee to supermarkets and other retailers.

"It's premature to talk about exactly what we would do with potential proceeds, but rest assured -- coffee is a core global category for us," Rosenfeld said in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference in Boca Raton, Florida.

The Starbucks partnership brings in about $500 million a year in annual revenue for Kraft. About a quarter of the sales for its Tassimo one-cup brewers comes from Starbucks-branded coffee, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher Growe.

Still, Kraft does not intend to give up on the single-serve coffee market, which is dominated by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc and its Keurig machines.

"We believe that competing across the various segments within coffee is important," Rosenfeld said. "Single serve has been an important part of our portfolio. It's growing quite nicely around the world and we expect that that will continue to be a key part of our coffee portfolio."

Kraft said no official timeline had been set for the arbitration process with Starbucks, but Rosenfeld said it would probably take the next few months.

"At the end of the rainbow, we built a good business together. We certainly respect their right to terminate the business but we expect to be paid for it," Rosenfeld said.