Maxwell House Cuts Wholesale Coffee Prices : Consumers: Decision reflects volatile market. Ground variety to drop 10 cents a pound.

Maxwell House Coffee Co. said Friday it has cut wholesale prices on its ground and instant coffees to reflect declining prices for unprocessed coffee.

The price cuts marked a continuation of the unusual volatility since summer in prices that coffee makers are charging on their sales to grocers.

Maxwell House has now changed its wholesale prices seven times since late June, when damaging weather in Brazil threatened its huge coffee crop.

Maxwell House, based in White Plains, N.Y., said it was cutting wholesale prices by 10 cents a pound on its ground coffees and 2.5 cents an ounce on selected instant coffees.

The wholesale price of a 13-ounce can of Maxwell House regular ground coffee is now $3.06, while an eight-ounce jar of Maxwell House instant coffee goes for $4.28. Those prices are what Maxwell House charges grocers and differ from prices available to consumers.

Maxwell House was the second-best-selling coffee brand in the United States last year behind Folger’s from Procter & Gamble.

The latest reductions erased part of the increases Maxwell House announced in early September when it raised ground coffee prices by 20 cents a pound and by 2.5 cents an ounce for instant coffees.

Earlier, it cut prices in two steps in August after raising them in three steps from June 29 through the end of July.

Maxwell House had been charging $2.39 for a 13-ounce can of its flagship ground coffee before a June frost in Brazil sent coffee bean prices soaring on world commodity markets.

The latest price cuts affect most of Maxwell House’s coffee brands including Yuban, Sanka and Brim but exclude its specialty coffees like Cappio.