Cocoa rose to a 32-year high in New York on concern that supplies from Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer, will continue to be disrupted as an export ban of the chocolate ingredient is extended.
Alassan Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the November presidential elections, will extend a ban that was imposed Jan. 23 and scheduled to expire this week, according to Malick Tohe, a cocoa adviser to Quattara. Before today, the commodity has gained 25 percent since late November.
“With no end to the political problems in sight, prices will remain buoyant,” said Jack Scoville, a vice president at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago. “Exports from the country are impossible, so people are worried about deterioration of the beans.”
Cocoa for May delivery climbed $87, or 2.5 percent, to settle at $3,586 a metric ton at 12 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching $3,608, the highest price since January 1979. Trading was closed yesterday for the U.S. Presidents Day holiday.
Scoville said he expects the price to rise to $3,655 by the end of this week.
In London, cocoa for March delivery rose 61 pounds, or 2.7 percent, to 2,362 pounds ($3,808) a ton on NYSE Liffe.
In Ivory Coast’s main port of Abidjan, the army has “reinforced the deployment” of troops to help keep order, Hilaire Babri Gohourou, an army spokesman, said on state-owned Radio Television Ivoirienne yesterday. At least 300 people have been killed in clashes since the vote, according to the United Nations.
Shipments of cocoa beans and processed cocoa products registered at Ivory Coast’s ports for export totaled 662,409 tons from start of the season on Oct. 1 through Feb. 17, according to an industry official with access to the data. In the 14 days to Feb. 17, cocoa-bean exports totaled 8,645 tons, said the official, who declined to be identified because the data are confidential.
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/cocoa-advances-to-highest-price-since-1979-on-ivory-coast-supply-concerns.html
