Cocoa prices are soaring on New York and London commodity markets as the International Cocoa Organisation predicts a global cocoa shortage of 103,000 metric tonnes in 2007. The ICCO daily price per metric tonne, averaging the nearest three months of futures trading in New York and London, neared $2,000 over recent days, while New York futures ended last week at $1,926.
Cocoa trees thrive in tropical rain forest with hot, humid weather and enough rain to keep the soil moist. But Ivory Coast and Ghana, two west African countries that make up the heart of the cocoa bean world, are in the worst drought in living memory, limiting yields on mature cocoa trees and killing younger ones altogether.
One major chocolate company, the Swiss firm Lindt, has warned that consumer prices will rise. The Hershey Co., which owns Mauna Loa Macadamia, maintains large chocolate inventories and may be insulated from the uptrend for a while.
Other chocolate companies say packaging and advertising contribute more to the consumer price of chocolate than the cocoa does, so even if the cocoa shortage leads to higher prices the difference should appear small from a consumer's point of view.
Pacific Business News
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March 28, 2007
Ghana, Ivory Coast droughts send cocoa prices soaring
Categories cocoa, Ghana, Ivory Coast
