Brazil's Bahia yields best cocoa crop in 15 yrs

SAO PAULO, March 23, 2011 - Brazil's main cocoa state Bahia has gathered the biggest main crop harvest since 1996/97, with favorable weather and better husbandry reducing diseasedamage, local cocoa analyst Thomas Hartmann said on Wednesday.

He said the October-April main crop in the state, had now surpassed 1.2 million 60-kg bags or 72,000 tonnes. The final output figure will continue to rise with another six weeks togo until the end of the season.

NY Coffee Market Close Review For Today, March 23, 2011

NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - Arabica coffee futures closed lower on follow-through weakness on Wednesday.
 

* May arabica coffee futures dropped 4.85 cents to
settle at $2.6860 per lb, an inside day.
 

* Market fell for a second straight day, after failing to breach the 62 percent Fibonacci retracement level at $2.83,  basis May, on Monday, indicating a short-term downtrend -- traders.

NY Cocoa Market Close Review For Today, March 23, 2011

NEW YORK, March 23, 2011 - U.S. cocoa futures finished down a shade in choppy dealings, with commercials taking the opportunity to buy at lower prices.

* Key May cocoa futures fell $12 to settle at $3,251 per tonne.
 

* Market little changed and dealing in thin volume as the cocoa export situation in top grower Ivory Coast, where there was an export ban, remained at a standstill -- traders.

LIFFE COFFEE AND COCOA MARKET CLOSE RIVIEW FOR TODAY, March 23, 2011

* Liffe July cocoa ends 4 pounds higher at 2,089  pounds a tonne. Market boosted by weakness of sterling after the  UK government cut its growth forecasts.
 

* Liffe May robusta coffee ends $31 lower at $2,538  a tonne. Market weighed down by setback in ICE arabicas driven  by bearish charts and a firmer dollar. -----

New Uganda coffee export rules may slow exports

* Exports now have to be inspected at Kenya border

* Traders say this could raise business costs

KAMPALA, March 23, 2011 - New rules on exporting coffee from Uganda could raise business costs and slow down exports, already hit by drought and disease, in Africa's second largest grower.

Coffee exporters said the new procedure requires them to offload their cargo for customs inspection at the border with Kenya. The authorities said the rule was crucial in verifying the goods for export through Kenya's port of Mombasa.

Uganda's coffee exports make up a major source of foreign exchange to the third biggest economy in east Africa.

Rising Coffee Costs May Not Boost Production

NEW ORLEANS – Near-record prices for Arabica beans have not enticed coffee growers to increase production, the Wall Street Journal reports. The cost of coffee has skyrocketed during the past 12 months mostly because of less production.

Kraft Foods Inc., Massimo Zanetti USA and Starbucks Corp. have all hiked prices because of the rapidly rising green bean costs. Arabica coffee futures on IntercontinentalExchange jumped more than 50 percent during the past six months because adverse weather conditions slashed production in countries such as Columbia.

But despite the higher prices for coffee beans, farmers haven’t been quick to plant more fields. Companies that buy green beans have begun paying more to ensure product amounts.

Puratos Group expands chocolate production in Brazil

Floresta do Rio Doce started in May 2010 as the first origin cocoa factory in Brazil. Located in Linhares, the third cocoa plantation region of Brazil, Floresta do Rio Doce marks a new era in the history of Brazilian cocoa plantations. Using processes and technology developed locally, the unit had an initial capacity to grinding 2,500 tons of cocoa beans per year.

With an initial investment of 4 million EURO, Floresta do Rio Doce built the first cocoa liquor production line in a building of 1.500 m² and a land of 40.000 m², close to more than 450 cocoa farms. 

The excellence of the cocoa liquor is guaranteed through all stages of the process, from the plantation of the fruit to the fermentation process on the farm and the industrialization of the final product.

Nestle brand faces 'difficulties' with coffee supply

Food giant Nestle's coffee subsidiary Nespresso is facing supply difficulties due to poor weather conditions affecting some crops, the brand's chief executive said on Wednesday.
 
"Our number one problem at the moment is finding arabica of a quality that are in line with our standards," Richard Girardot told AFP.
 
"We have suffered from unfavourable climatic conditions in Brazil and in Colombia. It's a real handicap," he explained.

Cocoa Arrivals From Brazil’s Bahia State Double, Hartmann Says

Cocoa arrivals from Bahia, Brazil’s biggest growing region, more than doubled from a week earlier, according to analyst Thomas Hartmann.

Deliveries to shippers and processors from Bahia’s growing areas totaled 11,302 bags in the week to March 20, Hartmann wrote in a report dated yesterday. That compares with the 5,107 bags a week earlier. Total arrivals from across Brazil were 32,813 bags, compared with 9,404 bags a week earlier. A bag weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).*****

The figures “are somewhat inflated due to the inclusion of quantities that had arrived during the Carnival weeks but only were reported after the transmission of last week’s report,” Hartmann said. Brazil celebrated its annual Carnival festival earlier this month.

Bahia represents almost 80 percent of the country’s cocoa output, and 95 percent of its grindings, according to Hartmann. He is a board member of the Commercial Association of Bahia and is in charge of the group’s statistical service on Brazilian cocoa output.

Hartmann predicted in December that Brazil’s main crop may reach 1.2 million bags.------

NESTLE EXPECTS TO RAISE PRICES BY ABOUT 1.6 PERCENT IN 2011 - CHAIRMAN

NEW YORK, March 22, 2011 - Nestle AG , the world's biggest food maker, expects to raise prices by 1.6 percent in 2011, the company chairman said on Tuesday, similar to last year's increase despite soaring raw material costs.
 

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told Reuters Insider that the company, which makes Nescafe coffee and Gerber baby food, would spend an extra $3.5 billion on raw materials in 2011, but more than half of that would be absorbed internally.