Raw sugar prices are forecast to rise as much as 7% by Q2 2015, but recent trading suggests prices will come down in the longer term, according to an analyst at Rabobank.
Not quite the choc-pocalypse, but retail prices for chocolate are expected to rise in the face of cocoa price hikes, which could see the taste, shape and size of chocolate change significantly in the year ahead.
A larger than expected supply of cocoa beans from West Africa will add to high buffer stocks and push cocoa prices down by 4%, according to financial service provider Rabobank.
The world’s leading cocoa manufacturer Barry Callebaut has entered a joint venture with Indonesian cocoa exporter P.T. Comextra Majora and has announced plans to build a €24m manufacturing facility.
Sugar stocks should rise significantly from their current low levels, with analysts forecasting a global sugar surplus of around 9.5m tonnes in the 2011/12 (October-September) crop year, on the back of increased production in Europe and Asia.
Ivory Coast’s cocoa trade has been normalised, but uncertainly remains about the mid-crop, and and all eyes are now on the weather for the main crop, to be harvested this autumn, notes commodities specialist Rabobank it its latest review.
Rabobank has warned that cocoa prices will respond if there is a return to civil war in the Ivory Coast as this could impede cocoa exports onto the world market.