Producers from cocoa-growing regions in South America and the Caribbean are considering a proposal from Peru’s trade group at a conference this week in Colombia.
Following an investigation published in The Washington Post in June, two Democratic lawmakers requested that existing laws prohibiting such imports be enforced.
There will be no dramatic drop in cocoa prices in the coming months as forecast by numerous speculators hoping to cash in on a downward trend, reports a cocoa market specialist.
With a larger crop and only modest growth in use, prices are expected to fall in 2011, according to Rabobank in its latest Agri Commodity market report. However further escalation of conflict in the Ivory Coast could send cocoa prices higher.
Small ingredients companies supplying chocolate and other products are expected to benefit from the cost-cutting tactics of their larger counterparts which now find themselves under threat, according to a co-founder of HB Ingredients.
Prices remain steady for cocoa, despite news that the start of the
new cocoa harvesting season from the world's biggest producer,
Ivory Coast, has been delayed due to a dispute.
