Cocoa bean stocks in the world fell to a minimum
14 February 22:34
Cocoa bean stocks in London and New York have fallen to a record low, a sign of an acute shortage of the commodity after several years of poor harvests. This was reported by the Financial Times, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
As noted, cocoa stocks in the warehouses of the London ICE Futures exchange have decreased from more than 100 thousand tons to almost 21 thousand tons.
Traders and chocolate manufacturers are massively buying up even low-quality cocoa stocks, as the world market has been suffering from poor harvests in producing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire over the past few years. Most often, these are cocoa beans from Cameroon or Nigeria, which are considered to be of lower quality in the chocolate industry.
For example, last month, Hershey Co. requested permission from the regulator to purchase up to 90 thousand tons of cocoa through the New York Stock Exchange, which is 9 times the established limit.
Due to the shortage of cocoa beans, manufacturers are producing smaller chocolate bars or products with less cocoa content.
At the same time, prices are rising: according to Wells Fargo, retail prices for chocolate on Valentine’s Day in the United States this year are 10-20% higher than last year.
Since the beginning of 2023, cocoa bean futures prices have tripled, reaching their highest level in 50 years.
