Kraft Foods Inc (KFT: 25.7414, 1.4914, 6.15%) posted a higher-than-expected first-quarter profit helped by price increases and cost-cutting measures.

The largest North American food company on Tuesday also stood by its 2009 earnings and revenue forecasts.

In recent years, Kraft has cut production costs while also increasing advertising and product development to help it garner higher prices and fend off competition from lower-priced private-label competitors.

The maker of Oreo cookies, Maxwell House coffee and a host of other well-known products said profit was $662 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with $601 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average forecast 40 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales fell 6.5% to $9.40 billion, hurt by the impact of the stronger dollar, which lessens the dollar-value of sales made overseas. A shift in the Easter holiday to April from March this year also cut into first-quarter sales.

“Organic revenue,” a measure of sales that excludes currency fluctuations, acquisitions and divestitures, rose 2.3%.”

Kraft, like most food companies, has raised prices the last few years to offset higher commodity costs. But those price increases have pressured volume as some consumers turn lower-priced options.

For the year, Kraft stood by its forecast calling for earnings per share of $1.88 and organic revenue growth of about 3%.

Kraft shares were at $25.06 in premarket trading, up 3.3 percent from Monday’s New York Stock Exchange close of $24.26.

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