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London - Cocoa futures have scaled to their highest levels in over a year on Monday as fears grew the month-long cocoa export ban imposed on January 23 in top producer Ivory Coast could be extended.
Arabica coffee was slightly higher, hovering near its recent thirteen and a half year high on tight supplies and robust demand, while raw sugar was lower, below 30-year peaks.
Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara said he would extend indefinitely his call for a ban on cocoa exports if his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, does not leave power by the end of the ban’s expiry next week.
“If Mr. Gbagbo leaves, of course the ban will be removed. But if he stays on, I just think the ban will continue,“
Ouattara told the Financial Times.
May ICE cocoa futures jumped to $3,444 a tonne in early trading, their highest since January 2010, later easing to trade up $33 or 1% to $3,404 a tonne at 13:29.
“I think the industry will panic if (the ban) carries on until the mid-crop,” starting from around mid-March, said Gary Mead, commodities analyst at VM Group.
“There will be concern about the cocoa in storage on quayside at ports,” Mead added, referring to potential quality
deterioration. “If the ban remains in place and is extended, then much more cocoa will go over the border.”
About 100 000 tonnes of cocoa beans have been smuggled out of Ivory Coast so far this season, the regulatory body said, indicating this year’s harvest is already well above one million tonnes.
Mead estimated a risk premium of about $500 a tonne was now built into ICE cocoa prices as a result of uncertainty in Ivory Coast, which grows about a third of the world’s crop.
Arabica coffee was slightly higher, hovering near its recent thirteen and a half year high on tight supplies and robust demand, while raw sugar was lower, below 30-year peaks.
Ivorian presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara said he would extend indefinitely his call for a ban on cocoa exports if his rival, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, does not leave power by the end of the ban’s expiry next week.
“If Mr. Gbagbo leaves, of course the ban will be removed. But if he stays on, I just think the ban will continue,“
Ouattara told the Financial Times.
May ICE cocoa futures jumped to $3,444 a tonne in early trading, their highest since January 2010, later easing to trade up $33 or 1% to $3,404 a tonne at 13:29.
“I think the industry will panic if (the ban) carries on until the mid-crop,” starting from around mid-March, said Gary Mead, commodities analyst at VM Group.
“There will be concern about the cocoa in storage on quayside at ports,” Mead added, referring to potential quality
deterioration. “If the ban remains in place and is extended, then much more cocoa will go over the border.”
About 100 000 tonnes of cocoa beans have been smuggled out of Ivory Coast so far this season, the regulatory body said, indicating this year’s harvest is already well above one million tonnes.
Mead estimated a risk premium of about $500 a tonne was now built into ICE cocoa prices as a result of uncertainty in Ivory Coast, which grows about a third of the world’s crop.
