(Bloomberg) – Cocoa futures climbed to a 23-month high in New York as European processing advanced, signaling sustained demand. Sugar also rose, while orange juice, coffee and cotton declined.
The European Cocoa Association said today that processing rose 4.7 percent to 331,514 metric tons in the third quarter from a year earlier, after gaining 6 percent in the previous three months. The last time processing advanced for two straight quarters was in 2011. Demand is rising as dry weather earlier in the growing season may cut yields in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s top two producers.
“Numbers like the 4.7 percent gain give me the impression that cocoa demand is still good and on the rise,” Hector Galvan, a senior commodities broker at RJO Futures in Chicago, wrote in an e-mail. “All the issues continue to press on the crop, such as yield kill from the heat stress it endured earlier in the year.”
Cocoa for delivery in December gained 1 percent to settle at $2,729 a ton at noon on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after reaching $2,735, the highest for a most-active contract since November 2011. The December contract may rise to $2,820, Galvan said.
Raw-sugar futures for March delivery increased 0.7 percent to 18.72 cents a pound in New York.
Orange-juice futures for November delivery fell 1.3 percent to $1.268 a pound on ICE. Cotton futures for December delivery slid less than 0.1 percent to 83.17 cents a pound. Arabica-coffee futures for delivery in December declined 0.7 percent to $1.144 a pound.
Fundamentals for arabica coffee will stay negative amid a potential record crop in top grower Brazil in 2014 and a strong rebound in Colombian production, the second-biggest supplier of the variety, Judy Ganes-Chase, the president of J. Ganes Consulting in Panama City, Panama, said in an e-mailed report.
