A NICE JAVA JOLT

Smucker’s 6% price cut could star t a trend

That morning cup of joe is going to start costing a little less for many caffeine lovers.

J.M. Smucker said Wednesday it is cutting the price of its Folgers, Dunkin’ Donuts, Cafe Bustelo, Cafe Pilon, and Millstone brands of coffee by about 6 percent.

The cut could force rivals, like Kraft, the maker of Maxwell House, to follow suit, some on Wall Street said.

The price cut follows a 45 percent decline in the price of arabica coffee beans over the past eight months.

Smucker — which will also shrink the size of is largest cans of coffee by three ounces this summer — had raised its prices last year as coffee futures spiked as a drought in Brazil limited its coffee bean exports.

But that 2014 move — an increase of about 9 percent, its first in three years — cost the company market share. It later called the increase a “misstep.”

Not everyone thinks the price cut and can downsizing will be enough to win back customers.

“Consumers are getting smarter about recognizing price and package size changes, particularly in coffee, where price volatility is more visible,” Ross Colbert, global strategist for beverages with Rabobank International, in New York, told Reuters in an email.

Arabica futures stood at about $2.30 a pound last October. The most recent price was about $1.25 a pound, down 5.6 cents Wednesday, according to CME.

Some analysts see a further eroding of coffee futures prices.

ABN Ambro analysts see futures prices hitting $1.15 a pound by the end of the year, according to a report.

The price decline accompanies more upbeat reports from the US government on the Brazilian coffee crop, the largest in the world.

The Smucker price drop af fects most of its packaged coffee products sold in the US — but doesn’t include KCups, Maribeth Burns, a company spokeswoman, told The Post.

Coffee lovers should rejoice as at least one analyst expects the price cuts to spread.

“We would expect Kraft to follow this price decrease quickly, at least on its Maxwell House brands,” Stifel analyst Christopher Growe wrote in a report Wednesday.

Kraft declined to comment on future price cuts.

Last year, soon after Smucker increased its prices, Kraft followed t with a price hike of its own.

The actual reason for the decline may be J.M. Smucker’s effort to beat McCafe products, their “direct competitive threat” to Dunkin Donuts coffees,” Growe wrote.

Smucker makes Dunkin’ Donuts brand coffee under license.

McCafe sells a similar product at a discount, according to Growe.

Coffee prices have plummeted since 2010, and it’s a surprise companies didn’t lower their prices sooner, Coffee Quality and Trade Specialist Andrew Hetzel told The Post.

“The prices have gone down dramatically over the course of this year,” Hetzel said.

The cost of green coffee has decreased 58 percent in the past five years, but it’s expected to jump back up soon, Hetzel told The Post.

Shares of Smucker rose 72 cents on Wednesday, to $109.17. They are up 8.2 percent so far this year.