Post by Trade Coach on Dec 18, 2012 18:10:33 GMT 1
ABIDJAN — Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast since the start of the season in October were down 15% at around 488,000 tons by December 16, exporters estimated on Monday.
This compared with 578,368 tons in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated about 63,000 tons of beans were delivered to the West African state’s ports of Abidjan and San Pedro between December 10 and 16, down from 68,515 tons in the same week a year earlier.
Exporters were concerned weekly cocoa arrivals were not meeting expectations that they would steadily increase as main crop harvesting moved towards its traditional peak period.
The bulk of Ivory Coast’s main crop harvest, or about 700,000 tons of beans, was delivered to port last month and this month.
"There is growing anxiety because we have not been able to close the gap in arrivals. We thought we would be able to do that fairly quickly with large volumes this month, but obviously this will not be possible," a director of an Abidjan-based cocoa export firm said.
"The only logical explanation for this situation is that (cocoa) production is lower than expected, otherwise I see no other logical explanation for this gap of 90,000 tons, which has lasted for a few weeks now," the manager said, requesting not to be named.
Another director of a cocoa export firm in San Pedro said the shortfall had spurred the aggressive buying of cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate.
"Everyone is paying a bonus of 10 to 30 CFA francs ($0.06) per kilogram to the middlemen in order to have as much cocoa as possible, but the volumes are still below expectation," the director said.
Exporters have said they would be in a position to know if there would be a production deficit this year after the pre-Christmas bump in harvesting.
Source: www.bdlive.co.za/world/africa/2012/12/17/ivorian-cocoa-arrivals-drop-15
This compared with 578,368 tons in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated about 63,000 tons of beans were delivered to the West African state’s ports of Abidjan and San Pedro between December 10 and 16, down from 68,515 tons in the same week a year earlier.
Exporters were concerned weekly cocoa arrivals were not meeting expectations that they would steadily increase as main crop harvesting moved towards its traditional peak period.
The bulk of Ivory Coast’s main crop harvest, or about 700,000 tons of beans, was delivered to port last month and this month.
"There is growing anxiety because we have not been able to close the gap in arrivals. We thought we would be able to do that fairly quickly with large volumes this month, but obviously this will not be possible," a director of an Abidjan-based cocoa export firm said.
"The only logical explanation for this situation is that (cocoa) production is lower than expected, otherwise I see no other logical explanation for this gap of 90,000 tons, which has lasted for a few weeks now," the manager said, requesting not to be named.
Another director of a cocoa export firm in San Pedro said the shortfall had spurred the aggressive buying of cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate.
"Everyone is paying a bonus of 10 to 30 CFA francs ($0.06) per kilogram to the middlemen in order to have as much cocoa as possible, but the volumes are still below expectation," the director said.
Exporters have said they would be in a position to know if there would be a production deficit this year after the pre-Christmas bump in harvesting.
Source: www.bdlive.co.za/world/africa/2012/12/17/ivorian-cocoa-arrivals-drop-15