Asia Cocoa-Bean counts fair; butter ratios edge down

Reuters - SINGAPORE: Cocoa harvests gained pace in Indonesia despite worries about quality, while butter prices weakened further as shipments from Ivory Coast recovered after the end of a deadly post-election conflict, dealers said on Friday. Indonesia, the world's third-largest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast and Ghana, could see this...

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Nigerian Cocoa Farmers Start Getting Fungicide as Shortages May Hurt Crop

Nigeria’s cocoa producers may begin using deliveries of fungicides to tackle diseases such as black pod next week after the arrival of shipments of the chemicals, amid a shortage that threatens effective treatment of the crop. “It’s being delivered,” Robo Adhuze, a spokesman for the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said by phone yesterday from...

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Coffee, Cocoa, Orange Juice Advance; Sugar Declines in New York

Arabica coffee jumped to a two-week high on concern that output inBrazil, the world’s biggest producer, may drop because of adverse weather. Cocoa and orange juice also rose, while sugar fell. Frost is possible in coffee-growing regions in Brazil’s Parana state on July 4, Donald Keeney, a meteorologist at MDA EarthSat Weather in Rockville,...

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Mars says 10 pct of cocoa sustainable this year

* Chocolate maker wants all cocoa sustainable by 2020 * Working with Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Good Inside ABIDJAN, June 30 (Reuters) - Chocolate-maker Mars said it was on track to buy 10 percent of its cocoa from sources certified as sustainable this year, and was working to increase that to 100 percent by 2020, though supply remained constrained....

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Cocoa Production Improvement Scheme Introduced To Farmers

An initiative to ensure sustainable cocoa production and improve the quality of the produce has been introduced to farmers in the Kakum area of theTwifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District of the Central Region. The initiative aims at transforming cocoa production in the Kakum area by improving productivity, conserving biodiversity and securing...

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Ghana’s Produce Buying Plans to Buy 50% of Light-Crop Cocoa Harvest Beans

Produce Buying Co., Ghana’s biggest purchaser of cocoa from farmers, plans to buy as much as half of the country’s light-crop harvest of beans, said Joseph Osei Manu, the company’s deputy managing director. “We hope to reach 40,000” metric tons by the end of the harvest in September, he said in an interview in Accra, the capital, yesterday....

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Heavy rain puts Ivorian cocoa quality under threat

Questions have been raised about the quality of the cocoa crop in the Ivory Coast following heavy rainfall in the region. There are reports that adverse weather conditions are hitting the south east of the country, affecting drying and fermenting operations and damaging transport hubs to market. Damp conditions also bring with it the risk...

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Cocoa Arrivals From Brazil’s Bahia Plunge 20%, Analyst Hartmann Says

Cocoa arrivals from Bahia, Brazil’s biggest growing region, plunged 20 percent from a week earlier, after a public holiday shortened the work week, said analyst Thomas Hartmann. Deliveries to shippers and processors were 61,426 bags in the week to June 26, Hartmann wrote in a report yesterday. That compares with 77,143 bags he reported a...

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Ghana Buys 23,000 Tons of Cocoa From Farmers in First Week of Light Crop

Ghana bought 23,000 metric tons of cocoa from farmers in the week through June 16, the first week of the light crop season, said Kwabena Asante-Poku, the deputy chief executive officer of Ghana Cocoa Board. Purchases from farmers for the 12-week season will probably reach about 80,000 tons, Asante-Poku said in a phone interview today. Source:...

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Cocoa Supplies to Outpace Demand By 187,000 Tons, ICCO Says

Cocoa supplies will exceed demand by 187,000 metric tons in the 2010-11 season that started in October, up from a previous estimate of 119,000 tons, according to the International Cocoa Organization. The production estimate was increased to 4.025 million tons from 3.938 million tons, the London-based ICCO said in a statement today. World...

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Nigeria’s Cocoa Exports Climbed 47% Last Year, Akingbola Says

Exports of cocoa products from Nigeria, the fourth-largest producer of the beans, rose 47 percent to $822.8 million in 2010, according to Olakunle Akingbola, business development manager of Cobalt International Services, an inspection company. This represented about 35 percent of $2.32 billion earnings from non-oil exports last year for...

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Ghana Reaps a Record Main Cocoa Crop of 903,646 Metric Tons, Cocobod Says

Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, reaped a record 903,646 metric tons of the chocolate ingredient in its main growing season as good weather and better farming practices helped to boost output, according to the industry regulator. The 33-week main-crop harvest, which started in October, was 54 percent higher than last year’s...

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Ivorian cocoa arrivals seen at 1,128,000 T by May 29

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,128,000 tonnes by May 29, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 986,357 tonnes in the same period last season. Exporters estimated around 25,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports between May 23 to May 29, up from...

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Copper gains on optimism about Chinese demand

AP reported that copper prices rose 2% on hopes that China's demand for the metal may increase. The world's second largest economy has a voracious appetite for commodities such as copper which is used in manufacturing, construction and infrastructure. Investors have worried that China's demand may slip because of the government's measures...

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Ghana cocoa main crop tops 900,000 T: Cocobod

By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - The provisional tally for Ghana's 2010-11 cocoa main crop purchases reached a record 904,000 tonnes, some 55 percent above last year's levels, the head of Ghana's Cocoa Board (Cocobod) told Reuters on Sunday. Chief Executive Tony Fofie, who dismissed reports the tally was padded by large amounts of beans...

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