Smucker Cuts Price Of Packaged Coffee

Coffee prices, which jumped earlier in the year on rising commodities prices, may be ready to come back down.

The first sign is an announcement from J.M. Smucker that it's cutting the price of its Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts brands of packaged coffee. Prices will decrease an average of six percent on impacted items, the company said.

Consumers are getting a break thanks to declines in the green coffee futures market. The company is currently in its quarter-end quiet period and, therefore, will answer investor related follow up questions during its August 18, 2011, fiscal first quarter earnings conference call.

Dunkin' Donuts brand is licensed to The J. M. Smucker Company for packaged coffee products sold in retail channels such as grocery stores, mass merchandisers, club stores, and drug stores. The company has no control over product sold at Dunkin' Donuts restaurants.

It was just two months ago that the Christian Science Monitor reported that coffee prices had nearly doubled, with “no relief in sight.” The article reported that coffee's rise was fueled by higher demand and higher fuel costs. But it also noted that many consumers had switched from name brand coffee to generics, in an effort to stretch grocery budgets.

Earlier this year, Smucker raised its coffee prices on four separate occasions.