In February, the ICCO daily price averaged US$2,034 per tonne, down by US$162 compared to the average of the previous month (US$2,196), and ranged between US$1,935 and US$2,142 per tonne.
At the beginning of February, cocoa futures prices continued their downward trend, initiated in July 2016. By the middle of the month, cocoa futures fell to a three-and-a half year low in London, at £1,557 per tonne and to a more than nine year low, at US$1,916 per tonne in New York. Concerns over excess supplies, resulting mainly from very favourable weather developments in West Africa continued to play a major bearish role in relation to both markets.
Compared to the 39-year high attained less than a year previously, cocoa futures prices on the London market lost about 36% of their peak values reached in July 2016 (£2,449 per tonne). However, in the middle of the month, cocoa futures prices bounced back, with prices recovering by seven per cent in two sessions. Nevertheless, thereafter cocoa futures prices reverted to their downward trend throughout the end of the month. Towards the end of the month, persisting market worries related to the prevailing oversupply situation for the 2016/2017 season outweighed the announcement by the Ivorian Government that 350,000 tonnes of defaulted contracts had been re-auctioned, thus reassuring the market that measures had been taken to address concerns over the commercialization of cocoa in the country.
At the beginning of April, cocoa futures prices continued the sustained downward trend initiated from the latter part of the previous month.
From the monthly report by the Cocoa International Organization:
Price movements
In April, the ICCO daily price averaged US$1961 per tonne, down by US$97 compared to the average price recorded in the previous month (US$2,058) and ranged between US$1,833 and US$2,123 per tonne.
Projections are that next year's global grain production will remain insufficient to meet the growing demand, raising the international price to historically high levels.
In the international market the price of cocoa reported a 10% increase up to September this year, reaching $3.39 per ton of grain in the stock market in New York. It is expected that this trend will continue in 2015 due to high demand for the product.
It is estimated that in 2014 it will rise by another 14% due to growth in global demand, specifically generated in Asia.
An article by Bloomberg.com reports that "global cocoa stocks are on route to having the most prolonged deficit in more than 50 years as demand for chocolate soars in Asia."
The sustained growth in demand for cocoa will continue next season, with prices exceeding $2,600 per tonne.
An article in Emol.com reports that "cocoa mills will increase production coming to a peak in the next two years, in order to meet the record demand for chocolate, in a time when the dip in supply from West Africa has resulted in the first seed shortages to have occurred in three seasons.
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