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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Trade & Industry devider Cocoa prices scale record heights

Cocoa prices scale record heights

Published Feb 10, 2024 01:33 am

LONDON, United Kingdom -- Cocoa struck record renewed peaks Friday in both London and New York, driven by a supply crunch over bad weather in top producers Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The New York price of cocoa zoomed to $6,030 per tonne, shattering its previous long-standing 1977 high of $5,379.

London cocoa extended its record-breaking week to vault to a new peak at £4,786 per tonne.

The rocketing cocoa market has sparked fear over the knock-on impact on the price of chocolate, at a time when the world's major economies are already grappling with elevated inflation.

"The ongoing (price) surge has been driven by a worse-than-expected deficit in 2023/2024, the third in a row, due to adverse developments in West Africa," noted Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.

The West African nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast are the world's biggest producers of the commodity that is mostly used to make chocolate.

Both countries had been hit by heavy rains that have sparked a tough year for the crop.

Producers now also face fresh turmoil due to the resurgence of the El Nino climate phenomenon, which causes drought in some areas and flooding in others.

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