A few days before Catholic Easter, the price of cocoa rose to a new all-time record high, topping $10,000 per tonne in New York today, before retreating slightly due to supply shortages caused by poor harvesting in the producing countries.
According to the Athens News Agency, the most-traded cocoa contract for May delivery in New York was trading around 19.10 GMT at $9,666, after already exceeding the $10,000 per tonne mark at the start of the session in Europe.
“A ton of cocoa now costs more than a ton of copper,” underlines Kathleen Brooks, an analyst at XBT.
Cocoa prices started to rise in 2023, due to fears of a supply shortage, but their rally accelerated in January 2024.
Strong demand combined with a significant reduction in supply from West Africa, the world’s main producer of cocoa, pushed prices to their highest historical levels since 2023. Since then, the records have followed one another.
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The most heavily traded contract in New York has already seen its price more than double, rising 130% this year.
In London too the price has risen 135% since January and set a new all-time record today at £8,682 per tonne.
Poor harvest
This price rally is explained by a combination of factors, in particular the shortage of cocoa from West Africa.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are by far the world’s main producers of cocoa beans.
The two supply nearly 60% of total production for the 2022-2023 harvest, according to estimates by the International Cocoa Organization.