Cocoa prices drop in the absence of major players in the market

The absence of major players in the domestic market to procure cocoa from growers has impacted the price of cocoa.

On Monday, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) offered a maximum of ₹180 a kg for wet cocoa beans and ₹640 a kg for dry cocoa beans. It bought wet cocoa beans at ₹220 a kg and dry cocoa beans at ₹700 a kg on May 20.

July US cocoa futures touched a high of $8,436 a tonne and closed at $8,294 a tonne on May 24. July London cocoa futures touched a high of £6,880 a tonne and closed at £6,819 a tonne on May 24.

A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, President of Campco, told businessline that major players were absent in the domestic market to buy cocoa last week, leading to a fall in the price of cocoa. To help grower-members, Campco maintained the price at ₹180 a kg for wet cocoa beans.

Warning on crop inputs

Asked about the arrivals, he said the co-operative is getting good quantities of wet cocoa beans from its grower-members.

The Trading Economics website said cocoa futures traded above $8,000 a tonne due to ongoing production concerns in West Africa and resilient demand for beans.

Also read: India’s farm input subsidies spike to $48.13 billion in 2022-23 

Short covering in cocoa futures surfaced in response to a cautionary note from the Hightower Report, it said. The report warned that West African cocoa farmers’ lack of fertilizer and pesticide use will hurt cocoa production during the 2024-25 season.

Citing the latest data, Trading Economics said farmers in Ivory Coast shipped 1.43 million tonnes (mt) of cocoa to ports from October 1 to May 19, down by 30 per cent from the same time last year.

Ivory Coast is aiming to ramp up its production to 2 mt by 2025, despite a projected 28.5 per cent drop in the early 2023-24 season due to adverse weather, it said.