London cocoa prices hit a 23-year high at the end of December, but emerging questions about consumer demand could see prices fall in 2009, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO).
Troubles for West African cocoa supplies look set to continue following reports that the harmattan, a harsh, crop-damaging wind, has begun to sweep in from the Sahara.
Costs for cocoa have fallen from a peak of $3000 per tonne in July, to $2551.33 on Monday, but reports of the damaging black pod disease in Ivory Coast could drive prices upwards, compounded by political uncertainty that may see chocolate buyers eager...
Cadbury today launched a fund to aid its cocoa suppliers
in Ghana, after research suggested that average production in
the region is now 40 per cent lower than the potential yield.
The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) has revised its gloomy
cocoa estimate of a 5,000 tonne deficit to predict a global surplus
of 80,000 tonnes of cocoa in the coming year, assuring
manufacturers of a steady supply.
Leading merchant of cocoa, sugar and coffee ED&F Man has
launched Corigins, a US-based supplier offering traceable, quality
sugar and cocoa ingredients, Philippa Nuttall reports.
Prices remain steady for cocoa, despite news that the start of the
new cocoa harvesting season from the world's biggest producer,
Ivory Coast, has been delayed due to a dispute.
US agri-giant Cargill has carved a deeper position in the European
chocolate market after Swiss firm Nestlé sold two cocoa processing
activities to the acquisitive private company.
The world's top supplier of industrial chocolate to the
confectionery industry delivered a solid set of first quarter
figures yesterday with net profit rising by 17 per cent, boosted by
the integration of recently acquired US...
The long term outlook for cocoa production in the world's biggest
producing country - the Ivory Coast - will be badly affected by the
current, and deepening, crisis in the country.
Indonesia's ambition to become the world's largest cocoa producer
by 2010 could wreak havoc on the global market, even if its beans
do not make it into the top grade, analysts said.
ADM Cocoa, a leading processor of cocoa beans, has acquired part of
the cocoa assets of Sifca, the Ivory Coast's main trader and
producer of cocoa, coffee and sugar.
U.S. agrifood giant Archer Daniels Midland Co. this week took
control of the cocoa assets of Sifca, Ivory Coast's last big
locally controlled commodities...