{"id":1454988,"date":"2024-02-02T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1454988"},"modified":"2024-02-02T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T17:45:00","slug":"cocoa-prices-hit-46-year-high-as-drought-concerns-threaten-west-african-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/cocoa-prices-hit-46-year-high-as-drought-concerns-threaten-west-african-crops\/1454988\/","title":{"rendered":"Cocoa Prices Hit 46-Year High As Drought Concerns Threaten West African Crops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Cocoa Prices Hit 46-Year High As Drought Concerns Threaten West African Crops<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Cocoa prices climbed to a 46-year high this week in New York as concerns mount that seasonal Harmattan winds across West Africa could dry cocoa fields and reduce yields for the Ivory Coast&#8217;s mid-crop in April. This would pressure global cocoa production even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg reports the most active cocoa futures jumped as much as 2.2% to $4,961 per ton in New York. Prices are up 126% since Sept. 2022, threatening to raise costs for the world&#8217;s top chocolate makers, such as The Hershey Company.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/Snag_440441e7.png?itok=aEJ0Tncl\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to Donald Keeney, senior meteorologist at Maxar Technologies Inc., average temperatures across West Africa are 2 degrees Celsius above normal for the next few weeks. He said the region was &#8220;a lot drier and warmer than usual for the past month&#8221; and will continue this trend, adding that the Harmattan &#8220;is certainly a bit stronger than usual this year.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/xhox_0.jpg?itok=yT1fODEC\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ivory Coast is the world&#8217;s largest cocoa producer, and lower production has been a major bullish catalyst for soaring cocoa prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Ivory Coast government said farmers shipped 1 MMT of cocoa to ports from October 1 to January 28, down 36% from the same period last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A week ago, the Ivory Coast cocoa regulator, Le Conseil Cafe-Cacao, halted forward cocoa sales for the 2024\/25 season due to sliding cocoa production.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2024-02-01_10-09-42.png?itok=15TQ7W4X\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This has also fueled worries that the current level of cocoa production will be unable to restock supplies and prevent a worldwide shortfall of the bean, widely used in candy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Jonathan Parkman, the head of agricultural sales at Marex Group, warned: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ve seen the worst of the situation for consumers.&#8221; He means the worst of &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/commodities\/worst-candyflation-yet-come-cocoa-prices-near-record\">candyflation<\/a>&#8216; has yet to be realized.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Fri, 02\/02\/2024 &#8211; 07:45<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/commodities\/cocoa-prices-hit-46-year-high-drought-concerns-threaten-west-africa-crops\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cocoa Prices Hit 46-Year High As Drought Concerns Threaten West African Crops Cocoa prices climbed to a 46-year high this week in New York as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}