Friday, 1 July 2011
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 year's output flat at 600,000 tonnes due to extreme weather triggered by the La Nina weather phenomenon.
Daily arrivals were steady at 250 tonnes in the main export port of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, but the amount could easily reach 500 tonnes in the past years, especially when harvesting starts to pick up.
"The crop started in late April but we don't see many beans around in the past month. The weather has been extreme. It could be very hot, and it could also be extremely wet," said a dealer in Makassar, who trades beans to Malaysia and Brazil.
"Quality is fairly good, but we don't know what will happen at the end of July or August. Past experience shows we'll normally have problems with bean counts at the end of the harvest. Currently, the bean counts are OK, at between 110 and 115."
Bean counts are used to measure quality. A lower bean count indicates good quality beans, and the national standard for bean counts in Indonesia is 110 beans per 100 grams.
Indonesia mainly exports beans to Malaysia, the United States and Brazil. The provinces of South, Central and Southeast Sulawesi account for about 75 percent of Indonesia's cocoa output.
Dealers noted regular shipments to Malaysia, which is Asia's largest grinder, but a drop in butter prices suggested the product market was under pressure from a lack of interest from chocolate makers.
Cocoa butter, a key ingredient for making chocolates, was offered at a ratio of 1.20 times London futures, down from 1.25 times a month ago. Powder prices were steady at around $5,000 a tonne, with a few deals reported.
"I think the ratios are still in the region of 1.20 times London but I also heard that some people are willing to sell butter at lower levels," said a dealer in Singapore.
"People want to throw away butter at lower ratios to generate cash. But the demand is not good."
When processing beans, grinders get butter and cake, which are later pressed into powder. Butter is also used to make spreads and soaps, while powder is used for coatings in chocolate-making, beverages and ice cream.
Liffe September cocoa rose 24 pounds to settle at 1,983 pounds a tonne on Thursday.
While harvests in Sulawesi will pick up next week, chocolate makers could be waiting for butter ratios to fall further before making new purchases.
Ratios jumped to 1.40 times in January on concerns that Ivory Coast growers might honour a call for a ban on bean exports after a disputed election re-ignited a 2002-3 civil war.
But the Ivorian cocoa sector is recovering from the conflict, which saw the suspension of exports and a build-up of nearly half-a-million tonnes of beans in warehouses. The conflict had sparked fears of disruptions in grindings.
Ivory Coast has shipped half of the roughly 470,000 tonnes of cocoa that had been blocked at the top growers' ports by a post-election conflict that ended in April, a top official at industry regulator BCC said on Tuesday.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
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 Akure in the west of the country. “The farmers may not be able to use the chemical until next week” and the lack of access by most may still “reduce the crop due to loss to black pod attacks.”
Cocoa is the second-biggest foreign-exchange earner for Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil producer, government figures show. Exports of beans in 2010 rose 2.3 percent to 200,333 metric tons, according to data from the Federal Produce Inspection Services, a government agency that supervises the shipments.
Emmanuel Ajayi, chief executive officer of Biostadt Nigeria Ltd., the importer of Syngenta AG (SYNN)’s Ridomil fungicide, said the delivery of 30,000 kilograms of the chemical and another 20,000 kilograms expected to arrive aren’t sufficient to meet demand.
“Nigeria needs a minimum of 200,000 kilograms a year,” he said by phone yesterday from Gombe, in the north.
Ridomil distributed by the Ghana government to its farmers is smuggled to Nigeria and sold below local prices, discouraging importers from competing, Adhuze said.
“Importers were wary of bringing in the chemicals because of losses they incurred in the past as a result of supplies from Ghana,” he said. “Ghana has tightened its borders. This year anybody that imports the chemical will sell everything because, although the Ghanaian supply still trickles in, it is reduced.”
Nigeria ranks behind the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia among the world’s largest producers, according to the website of the International Cocoa Organization. Nigeria’s cocoa year is divided into two harvests. The main crop begins in October and ends in January, while the light-crop season, the smaller of the two, usually begins in March and ends in June.
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, Maryland, said today. Brazi’s state forecaster earlier this week said the cold already may have done some damage.
“The frost concern remains,” said Luis Rangel, vice president of commodity derivatives at ICAP Futures LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey. “We are also seeing some end-of-the month buying.”
Arabica coffee for September delivery climbed 4.9 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $2.656 a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching $2.668, the highest since June 16. The price climbed 0.6 percent this quarter and has risen 10 percent for the year.
Commodities prices have been supported this year by government spending programs to revive growth. The Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing concludes today. The central bank plans to buy between $4 billion and $5 billion of notes due from December 2016 to June 2018. The purchases will be the last in the central bank’s effort to add $600 billion to the economy, according to its website.
Cocoa futures for September delivery rose $32, or 1 percent, to $3,151 a metric ton on ICE, gaining for the second quarter in three.
Raw-sugar futures for October delivery fell 0.58 cent, or 2.2 percent, to 26.34 cents a pound in New York, retreating for the second straight quarter. Prices are down 18 percent in 2011, heading for the first annual decline since 2007.
Orange-juice futures for September delivery rose 0.3 cent, or 0.2 percent, to $1.871 a pound, capping a 15 percent gain this quarter.
In London, refined sugar retreated, while robusta coffee and cocoa advanced on NYSE Liffe.
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.
In a statement late on Wednesday, Mars said it had partnered with the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Good Inside with the aim of meeting 200,000 tonnes a year by the end of this decade.
Consumers, especially in Western countries, are increasingly demanding products certified as sustainable, as awareness grows of the impact their consumption has on the environment and the mostly poor workers who provide the raw materials.
Labels like the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade provide markets in rich countries -- often at premium prices -- for producers in developing states who adopt environmentally sound cultivation methods or labour policies that promote development.
Once niche brands, their market share has surged.
"Mars is working to certify 100 percent of our cocoa as sustainable by 2020, and we've already partnered with Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Good Inside to meet 200,000 metric tons of our projected annual cocoa supply by that time," Andrew D. Harner, Global Cocoa Director for Mars Chocolate, said.
"Currently, we are on track to buy 10 percent certified cocoa in 2011, but the available supply of certified cocoa is still constrained," he added.
Last week, Alex Assanvo, global product manager of the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation for cocoa, projected that total sustainable cocoa would increase fivefold to well over 200,000 tonnes a year by 2020, compared with 35,000 tonnes sold in 2010.
Fairtrade, which does not itself work with Mars, based those projections largely on expected demand, he said.
A U.N.-backed report last November said markets for sustainable products have expanded rapidly over the past five years and are growing much faster than for conventional goods.
"Our real interest in certification is to motivate an industry-wide adoption of sourcing criteria that will drive concrete benefits for farmers, first and foremost of which must be increased productivity and income," Harner said.
World no. 2 cocoa producer Ghana remains the biggest player in the sustainable market, with 60 percent, while Ivory Coast has about 30 percent. The rest is largely shared between Indonesia, Madagascar and Latin American countries. (Reporting by Tim Cocks; editing by Mark John)
Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/ivoryCoastNews/idAFLDE75T0T520110630?sp=true
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 a sustainable livelihood for cocoa farmers and their families.
It is being undertaken by OLAM Ghana Limited, a licensed cocoa buying company, and Conservation Alliance, a non-governmental organisation.
Under the initiative, farmers will be given the needed training that will enable them to produce quality cocoa, taking into consideration the environment, among other things.
Speaking at the launch, the Deputy Executive Director of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot and Virus Diseases (CSSVD) Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr George Opoku, said the initiative was geared towards conserving flora and fauna, improving the physical and chemical properties of the soil and reducing pollution and contamination of ground water.
He said apart from improving the ecosystem, the incorporation of trees was expected to yield long-term economic benefits to farmers.
Dr Opoku said as part of COCOBOD’s strategy to assist cocoa farmers to achieve maximum returns, a new extension system that is cost effective and professional had been put in place since January 2010.
In addition, he said, COCOBOD had instituted the cocoa rehabilitation scheme, under which cocoa farms that were denuded and more than 30 years were cut free of charge and farmers supplied with free high-yielding, early bearing hybrid cocoa seedlings.
He said farmers were also provided with free economic tree seedlings and plantain suckers to provide shade for the trees.
The Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Alliance, Mr Yaw Osei Owusu, said cocoa was a very important commodity which had been the backbone of Ghana’s economy since independence.
The Head of the Cocoa Division of OLAM Ghana Limited, Mr John Andre, said the company was present in 60 countries trading in cocoa, cashew, among other produce.
He said the company, which came to Ghana in 1993, was currently involved in the trading of cocoa, cotton and cashew, adding that the company, which was the third largest licensed buying company, was grateful to cocoa farmers.
Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/337385/1/cocoa-production-improvement-scheme-introduced-to-.html
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. “As at the first week ending June 16, we had purchased 19,000” tons, he said.
The light, or mid, crop harvest produces smaller beans that are used mainly by processing companies based in Ghana, the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer. The Ghana Cocoa Board, which oversees the industry, expects the June-to-September harvest to reach 80,000 tons, said Kwabena Asante-Poku, deputy chief executive officer of the board.
Ghana’s main-crop harvest, which started in October and ended in May, rose to a record 903,646 tons, the board said on May 30.
The boost came from favorable weather and programs to provide pest- and fungus-eradicating chemicals to farms as well as fertilizer, Osei Manu said.
PBC’s share price has doubled this year, outpacing a 20 percent increase in the Ghana Stock Exchange’s Composite Index. It was unchanged at 28 pesewas per share by 11:03 a.m. in Accra. Cocoa for September delivery rose for a fourth day, gaining 23 pounds, or 1.2 percent, to 1,982 pounds ($3,173) per ton in London.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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 of disease.
Keith Flury, senior commodity analyst at Rabobank, is reserving judgement just yet, as he told FoodNavigator.com that there is some uncertainty as to how significant it is.
He said: “There has been some pretty heavy rainfall in certain areas of the country but we don’t see it as a widespread thing.”
However, he pointed out that infrastructure in the region does lend itself to breaking down with heavy rainfall and said that the conditions would impact not only the current mid-crop but the coming main crop.
Quality is top concern
Reuters reported on Monday that cocoa production volumes were higher than last year at more than 1.2 million tonnes this season, but quality had become a top concern since the onset of the rainy season.
Exporters said much of the 15,000 tonnes of beans arriving at ports last week was not suitable for shipment, according to the news agency.
Flury added: “You have to dry and ferment the beans in order for the quality to be sufficient. If they are not able to dry and ferment the beans,that will be the problem.”
The Ivory Coast, which supplies about 40 per cent of world cocoa, has seen turmoil recently when a political crisis there led to a four-month ban on cocoa exports. This was only lifted a few weeks ago in April.
The internationally recognized president elect, Alassane Ouattara, suspended exports, including cocoa and coffee, in January in order to cut off funding to Laurent Gbagbo, who had disputed the November 2010 election results.
The EU also imposed sanctions against trade with the country, resulting in 475,000 tonnes of cocoa beans piled up in the Ivorian ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, awaiting export.
Now the sanctions and ban has lifted, Flury said that it was still taking a while to get some of these beans out of storage.
Meanwhile purchasers, who had held off from buying cocoa during the Ivorian crisis, are now shoring up and restocking cocoa - in part to cover supply and in part to hedge against price risk.
Rabobank said earlier this month that the buying surge could result in a short selling rally but the supply of beans was likely to be sufficient to meet demand with Ivory Coast, Ghana and other African producers all reporting sizeable increases in arrivals.
According to ICCO sources, global cocoa consumption expressed in terms of cocoa beans crushing was estimated to rise to about 3.8 million tonnes during the current 2010-2011 cocoa season, up from 3.7 million tons in the 2009-2010.
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 week earlier. Total arrivals across Brazil were 79,868 bags, compared with 97,523 bags a week earlier. A bag weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).
The latest figures on deliveries may be revised when weekly data from one of the large grinders comes in, Hartmann said.
Bahia represents almost 80 percent of the country’s cocoa output and 95 percent of its grindings, Hartmann said in a Jan. 19 e-mail. 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.
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.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
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 output will rise 11 percent from the previous year, led by an increase in production from Ghana, the world’s second-largest grower, the organization said in a separate report e-mailed today.
Grindings were increased to 3.798 million tons from 3.78 million tons, the highest on record, it said. Cocoa processing activity is expected to increase by almost 9 percent in Asia and Oceania and 3 percent in Europe, the ICCO said.
Ghana’s crop will be a record 960,000 tons, boosted by “conducive weather conditions, new farms coming into production, improved farm husbandry, increased fertilizer application and boosted farmer incentives,” the ICCO said.
Output in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, will rise to 1.3 million tons, up from 1.242 million tons in the previous season, following the country’s political crisis earlier this year.
The size of the country’s mid-crop, the smaller of two annual harvests, may be reduced by security and logistical concerns, the ICCO said. The mid-crop was expected to be 300,000 tons, according to the report.
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 Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil producer, Akingbola said by phone today from Akure in western Nigeria.
“We expect to raise earnings from cocoa to 40 percent of non-oil revenue this year,” said Akingbola, whose company inspects all Nigerian non-oil products at ports before export.
Cocoa is Nigeria’s second-biggest foreign-exchange earner after crude oil, according to figures published by the Nigerian government. The Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia produce more cocoa, according to the International Cocoa Organization.
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 output, Noah Amenyah, spokesman for the Accra-based Ghana Cocoa Board, also known as Cocobod, said by phone today. It’s also the biggest in the West African nation’s history.
Ghanaian production was not boosted by smuggling of the beans from neighboring Ivory Coast, the world’s top grower of cocoa, Amenyah said. Shipments of Ivorian beans were largely halted for about three months earlier this year amid a violent struggle for power that followed the country’s November presidential election.
Cocobod is targeting production of between 80,000 tons and 100,000 tons in the 12-week light-crop season that starts on June 10, Amenyah said. The board is also aiming for annual production of 1 million tons by the 2012-13 harvest, he said.
Monday, 30 May 2011
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 20,163 tonnes in the same week a year ago.
Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE74T06W20110530
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 to curb inflation and slow economic growth.
Reports surfaced this week that inventories fell at the Shanghai Futures Exchange which could indicate copper purchases are picking up, Barclays Capital analysts said in a research report.
Copper for July delivery rose 7.5 cents to settle at USD 4.186 a pound its fourth consecutive day of gains. July platinum gained USD 21.90 to settle at USD 1,800 an ounce and June palladium rose USD 2.70 to USD 759.90 an ounce.
Matt Zeman analyst of Kingsview Financial said that gold and silver prices were supported by investors looking for stable assets because of uncertainty over Europe's sovereign debt problems and recent signs of slowing in the US economy.
Greece's main opposition conservative party rejected a government plea for an agreement on new austerity measures. European leaders have demanded an agreement between Greece's two largest parties to ensure that an emergency loan program can run smoothly beyond the next general election, which is due in 2013.
June gold rose USD 13.50 to settle at USD 1,536.30 an ounce and July silver gained 53.3 cents to USD 37.863 an ounce. Most commodities benefited from a weaker dollar, although overall trading was light ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. Since commodities are priced in dollars buyers who use other currencies get more for their money when the dollar is weak.
(Sourced from Associated Press)
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 being smuggled into Ghana from Ivory Coast, said the light crop would produce "at least 80,000 tonnes".
Cocobod has twice revised upwards its target for cocoa purchases this year and the world's No. 2 grower is set to smash the previous full-season record of 740,000 tonnes seen in 2005-2006.
"The purchases have hit 904,000 tonnes -- it's a record achievement and it shows that the government's renewed strategy to raise production is working," Fofie said of the main crop, which began in October and ran through until May 19.
Fofie said the light crop would start on June 10, a week later than expected, but it would hit 80,000 tonnes: "It could be more because we still have lots of cocoa pods on the farms."
Some analysts say the political crisis in neighbouring Ivory Coast led to more beans being smuggled into Ghana as the industry in Ivory Coast was paralysed for months by ports shutting down and sanctions on the industry regulators.
But Ghana has repeatedly rejected this and Fofie called such claims "imaginations".
"We have doubled our fertiliser use, we have significantly scaled up disease and pests control -- generally, we are doing a lot more now to sustain high production and also ensure that our farmers are well motivated and rewarded," Fofie said.
"In addition, we've had very good rains that bolstered pod development and maturity this year, more than we've seen recently," he said.
Ghana has set itself the target of purchasing at least 1 million tonnes of cocoa a year by the 2012-13 season.
Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE74T05J20110530
