Cocoa prices remained stable in the domestic market last week. On June 24, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd offered a maximum of ₹190 a kg for wet cocoa beans and ₹600 a kg for dry cocoa beans.

A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, President of Campco, told businessline that the cooperative is getting good quantities of wet cocoa beans from its member-growers from Karnataka and the northern part of Kerala. Despite the absence of major players in these regions, the cooperative has been offering a good price to the growers.

Campco offered a maximum of ₹170 a kg for wet cocoa beans and a maximum of ₹580 a kg for dry cocoa beans on June 17.

On June 21, September US cocoa futures touched a low of $8600 a tonne, and July London cocoa futures touched a low of £8100 a tonne. Some bearish signals impacted the prices in the international market.

Offtake to slip?

Ghana’s cocoa regulator expressed optimism on the increase in the output during the cocoa season 2024-25 (October-September). It said cocoa production is likely to be at 700,000 tonnes in 2024-25 due to the improvement in weather conditions in the region. Ghana’s production was at 425,000 tonnes in 2023-24. Ghana is one of the major producers of cocoa in the global market.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg report said consumers will probably cut back on chocolate as this year’s historic cocoa rally gradually trickles down to manufacturers and forces them to raise prices.

Quoting Mark Davies, Managing Director at Nestle Confectionery UK & Ireland, the report said shoppers are yet to feel the full impact because chocolatiers secured and hedged supplies at lower prices, and companies will inevitably have to start passing on higher costs.

Opining that cocoa prices are likely to stay elevated, he said, “Industry shouldn’t imagine a future where prices will go back to $2,500”. The price of the cocoa had hit an all-time high of $12,000 a tonne in the international market in April this year.

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