CMA Says Ivory Coast Cocoa Exports to Begin May 14

LONDON. Cocoa exports from Ivory Coast will resume May 14 after taking the current president, said the largest operator of shipping between Europe and the Ivory Coast.
Gerd Wildgrube, head of import traffic from Africa to Germany to CMA CGM, told Dow Jones Newswires first chartered vessel will be discharged at the port of Abidjan, May 14 and arrive in Hamburg on 27 May.
After that, exports will resume once a week depending on the security situation in Ivory Coast said. A unit of Danish shipping group AP Moller-Maersk, said it expected exports to resume on Wednesday.
"It seems unrealistic this week that the ships can get out this week," said Mr. Wildgrube. He refused to comment on the exact amounts that moved.
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast is elected president Alassane Ouattara, said Laurent Gbagbo seized from his residence, ending at the head of a long conflict between the two presidential rivals had been leaning toward the world's largest producer of cocoa to war civil.
Almost all shipments of cocoa have been stalled since Mr. Ouattara called for a ban on exports in January in an attempt to tighten control of its rival. Ivory Coast supplies about a third of the world's cocoa and cocoa accounts for nearly one third of gross domestic product.
Expected that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of stocks could be released on Friday received a boost when the EU lifted the sanctions, which the shippers to enter into Abidjan and the top of cocoa export terminal in San Pedro.
However, dealers remained cautious, saying it could take weeks before the cacao is moved out of the country, both financial and physical infrastructure needed to release the stocks in the Ivory Coast remains paralyzed.
A trader said there was little equipment available to load ships and many workers have fled the violence. More than a million people have been displaced and hundreds were killed during fighting in four months, according to United Nations agencies.
Andreas Christiansen, president of the German Cocoa Trade, said the supplies held in ports, dealers estimated at over 400,000 tons can be moved only when export duties were paid, but the shutdown banking makes this almost impossible.
"I doubt [export duties] have been affected, however, as far [as] the banking system here is also the bottleneck," said Christiansen.
An additional 150,000 tons of cocoa without coverage also marks the northern state, he said. It could take four to six weeks for these supplies to be transported to the ports, Mr. Christiansen said.
"Cocoa will only move to cash, and the first banking system has to be viable again," he said.
International banks left Ivory Coast in the midst of a liquidity crisis caused by foreign sanctions. BNP Paribas declined to comment on the matter, but Société Générale and Standard Chartered PLC, said they are monitoring the situation closely.
"We hope to be able to re-start the activity as soon as possible, but it is premature to comment on a specific timeframe," said a spokesman for Société Générale.
Cocoa futures both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom shrugged off the news. Reference May futures traded on Liffe London Stock Exchange rose from 0.8% to £ 1,914 ($ 3,132) a metric ton. In New York, the May contract rose 1. 5% to $ 3,020 a tonne on the IntercontinentalExchange.
"There's so much to heat that will keep the market nervous at the moment," said a trader at London-based cocoa. "There is still a long way to go before returning to normal."

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704529204576256883997639632.html)