Domestic market witnessed an increase in the price of dry cocoa beans as the international market witnessed a jump last week.
On June 10, the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) offered ₹500-540 a kg for dry cocoa beans and ₹120-160 a kg for wet cocoa beans. On June 4, price of dry cocoa beans was in the range of ₹460-520 a kg and wet cocoa beans in the range of ₹120-160 a kg.
On June 7, July US cocoa futures closed at $9,933 a tonne and July London cocoa futures closed at £7989 a tonne.
A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, Campco President, told businessline that a decision has been taken to increase the price for dry cocoa beans following the international price trends and to support the grower-members of Campco.
Supporting growers
He said the co-operative has been buying wet cocoa beans to support its grower-members. Major private players remained absent in the market.
On the price increase in international market last week, Barchart (a data and tech solutions company for financial industry) said Ivory Coast farmers shipped 1.5 million tonnes (mt) of cocoa to ports from October 1 2023 to June 2 2024, a decrease of 30 per cent, from the same time last year. Citing Ecom Trading (a cocoa trader), it said cocoa production in Ivory Coast for 2023-24, which ends in September, will fall by 21.5 per cent to an eight-year low of 1.75 mt.
Quoting Ghana’s Cocoa Board, Barchart said Ghana’s cocoa harvest for 2023-24 would be only 4,22,500-4,25,000 tonnes. This would be half the initial forecast of Ghana.
In its recent forecast for the cocoa year 2023-24 (October-September), the International Cocoa Organisation’s (ICCO) Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics had stated that much lower cocoa supplies from the leading producing countries have extended the supply deficit. According to ICCO, global production is projected to touch 4.461 mt in 2023-24 from 5.047 mt in 2022-23, a decrease of 11.7 per cent.