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.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-29/cocoa-arrivals-from-brazil-s-bahia-plunge-by-20-analyst-hartmann-says.html