Industry fortune-telling of a large cocoa shortfall in 2020 was a shrewd way to secure supply at low prices, but the latest deficit forecasts are nowhere near as gloomy.
The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) has slightly reduced its cocoa deficit forecast for the current crop year and says there are ample stocks for chocolate manufacturers, but a deficit next year could raise prices.
Safety and sustainability concerns from the food packaging sector are driving increased demand for virgin fibre folding boxboard, said M-real as it announced plans to increase it capacity for the material by 70,000 tons per annum (t/a).
M-real has unveiled plans to invest €26m in boosting its folding boxboard capacity at one of its plants in Finland on historically high demand for the material from the food packaging sector.
Sugar prices on China's futures market fell sharply this week as
the government announced that it would auction 552,000 tons, mostly
from its reserve stocks, to stabilise prices.
Hungry food ingredients giant Cargill to enter Brazilian sugar and
alcohol production sector for the first time, announcing a new deal
to buy Açucareira Corona sugar mills.
A record sugar cane crop has helped the Philippines become an
exporter of sugar after years of imports. It expects to sell
160,000 tons overseas this year, according to the country's Sugar
Regulatory Authority (SRA). Anand Krishnamoorthy...
Prices for cocoa remain relatively volatile as political unrest in
Ivory Coast, that produces some 40 per cent of global cocoa crops,
keeps the market nervous.
Cocoa prices have leapt in London, driven by fears that instability
in Ivory Coast, that produces some 40 per cent of global crops,
could impact supplies.