Cocoa Falls on Signs of Rising Production in Ghana

Cocoa fell for the fifth time in six sessions in New York on signs of increasing output in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two biggest growers.

About 32,131 metric tons of beans arrived in the Ivory Coast ports of Abidjan and San Pedro in the week ended Feb. 8, compared with an estimated 22,000 tons a year earlier, according to officials with access to the data. Cocoa buyers in Ghana said a later-than-usual peak in the main harvest could boost supplies.

The main crop in Ivory Coast and Ghana “is not as poor as they thought,” said Bill Frejlich, a broker at the Fox Investments unit of MF Global in Chicago.

Cocoa futures for May delivery fell $33, or 1.2 percent, to $2,639 a ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The most-active contract dropped 5.7 percent last week.

Ivory Coast’s main crop, picked from October through March, is the larger of two harvests each year.

Prospects are improving for the West African country’s mid- crop, the smaller of the two harvests, which is picked from April through September. The mid-crop could reach 350,000 tons to 400,000 tons, compared with 320,000 tons last year, said Ali Lakiss, director of Saf-Cacao, Ivory Coast’s largest domestic exporter.

The strengthening dollar and slumping stock markets also spurred cocoa sales, Frejlich said.

The dollar rose to the highest against the pound, used to trade cocoa in London, since Feb. 2 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. equities fell to the lowest since Nov. 21.

The most-active cocoa futures may reach and find support between $2,400 and $2,350 by early next week, Frejlich said.