HAMBURG, April 115, 2011- Germany's first-quarter 2011 cocoa grind rose 22.7 percent on the year to 108,816 tonnes, the association of German confectionery producers BDSI said on Thursday.
The association said the large rise was partly due to a change in statistical calculation because more companies were contributing grinding data than in the first quarter of 2010.
In other side, Europe's first quarter cocoa grind rose 3.5 percent on the year earlier period to 353,103 tonnes, the Brussels-based European Cocoa Association said on Thursday.
The rise was at the higher end of analysts' and dealers' expectations, as grinding capacity utilization in Europe was forecast to have increased, due to the lack of activity in top cocoa producer Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast's cocoa industry has been at a standstill in recent months after a disputed presidential election in November led to EU sanctions, a ban on cocoa exports and a crippled banking system.
Cocoa processors were expected to have replaced the lost Ivory Coast capacity by using capacity elsewhere.
European grindings, a key indicator of demand, have not yet fully recovered from a recession-linked decline in early 2009.
The ECA's quarterly statistics cover most of the grinding industry in the European Union and Switzerland.
Source: reuters
