Cocoa rebounds on signs of higher U.S. demand, slower exports

Cocoa prices rebounded from a five- week low on signs that demand for chocolate increased in the U.S. and that exports declined from Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer of the beans.

Cocoa processing in the U.S., the second-biggest grinder behind the Netherlands, rose 1.9 percent to 92,088 metric tons in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to the National Confectioners Association in Vienna, Virginia. Beans sent to Ivory Coast ports for export dropped 14 percent in December to 153,036 metric tons from a year earlier.

Prices rose “on the U.S. cocoa grind data,” Jack Scoville, a vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in a report. “The overall amount of arrivals and exports remain below a year ago,” in West African countries, he said.

Cocoa futures for March delivery rose $7, or 0.3 percent, to $2,470 a metric ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

Earlier, the price fell as much as 5 percent to $2,340, the lowest for a most-active contract since Dec. 12, as a rally by the dollar eroded the appeal of U.S. commodities.

In 2008, cocoa jumped 31 percent, the largest gain among 19 raw materials in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, amid a supply deficit and a reduced crop in Ivory Coast. Ghana is the second- largest bean producer.

Source: Bloomberg