COPAL COCOA Info



COPAL COCOA Info A Weekly Newsletter of Cocoa Producers' Alliance

|Health and Nutrition |Business & Economy |

|Chocolate: A food we hold sacred |Commodities Roll Yield in 2009 |

|Chocolate is good for you, and the world |The invincibles – recession proof food and healthy eating |

|The perks of chocolate |MARKET TALK: ICE Cocoa Pares Losses In Consolidative Trade. |

| |PNG govt faces drop in income if commodity prices remain low. |

|Production & Quality |Cote d'Ivoire: Government Fixes new Purchasing Price for Coffee,|

|Ivory Coast plan to boost cocoa quality |Cocoa. |

|Ivory Coast Cocoa Arrivals Oct 1 To Jan 11 Seen -27% On Yr |Ivory Coast's cocoa industry faces a bleak future |

|Indonesia's Sulawesi Cocoa Bean Exports Fall 10 Pct in 2008 |Callebaut Says Crisis Won't Kill Chocolate Growth |

|Cameroon Exports 116,006 Tons Cocoa Beans Aug-Dec –NCCB |Cocoa output to fall below use - Industry Group |

| | |

|The Market |Labour Issues |

|MARKET TALK: ICE Cocoa Drops On Profit-Taking; Holds Support. | |

|SOFTS-Fund sales pummel sugar, coffee and cocoa |Research and Development |

|SOFTS-Cocoa stumbles late as economic gloom bites |Consortium Using 454, Illumina Sequencers to Decode Cacao Genome|

|ICE Cocoa Slips to One-Month Low, Coffee Mixed |Take two Mars bars and relax |

|Foods and Softs Outlook for January 16, 2009 | |

| |Environmental Issues |

|Processing & Manufacturing |World Cocoa Foundation Sets Guiding Sustainability Principles |

|European 4Q Cocoa Grind Up 0.1% On Year At 349,351 Tons. | |

|UPDATE 1-U.S. Q4 2008 cocoa grind up 1.85 pct from year ago |Promotion |

|Barry Callebaut Opens Brand New 100,000 Ton Chocolate Factory in Mexico| |

| |Others |

In the News (from Newspapers worldwide)

ICCO Daily Cocoa Prices

| |ICCO daily price |ICCO daily price |London futures (£/tonne) |New York futures |

| |(SDR/tonne) |($US/tonne) | |($US/tonne) |

|14th January |1624.14 |2455.13 |1727.33 |2392.33 |

|16th January |1662.26 |2517.46 |1745.33 |2470.33 |

|International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) |

|London Futures Market – Summary of Trading Activities |

|(£ per tonne) |

|Monday |12th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Opening Trans |Settle |Change |Daily High |Daily Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |1807 |1775 |-33 |1822 |1725 |16,063 |

|Month |Opening Trans |Settle |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |1767 |1798 |23 |1812 |1746 |9,680 |

|Wednesday |14th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Opening Trans |Settle |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |1812 |1751 |-47 |1854 |1749 |10,317 |

|Thursday |15th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Opening Trans |Settle |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |1642 |1696 |51 |1698 |1635 |7,747 |

|Month |Opening Trans |Settle |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |1740 |1766 |30 |1780 |1737 |

|  |  |  |  |  |75,502 |

|New York Board of Trade |

|New York Futures Market – Summary of Trading Activities |

|($ per tonne) |

|Monday |5th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Open |Price |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar-09 |2585 |2506 |-79 |2585 |2450 |14,979 |

|May-09 |2569 |2507 |-72 |2569 |2450 |4,206 |

|Jul-09 |2537 |2496 |-74 |2545 |2444 |1,353 |

|Sep-09 |2514 |2474 |-72 |2523 |2430 |294 |

|Dec-09 |2472 |2439 |-72 |2480 |2400 |467 |

|Mar-10 |2438 |2413 |-74 |2442 |2394 |70 |

|May-10 |0 |2406 |-70 |0 |0 |1 |

|Jul-10 |0 |2402 |-74 |0 |0 |0 |

|Sep-10 |0 |2402 |-74 |0 |0 |0 |

|Dec-10 |0 |2402 |-74 |0 |0 |0 |

|Totals |  |2445 |  |  |  |21370 |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Tuesday |6th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Open |Price |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar-09 |2480 |2485 |-21 |2507 |2425 |8,464 |

|May-09 |2475 |2488 |-19 |2506 |2441 |2,254 |

|Jul-09 |2468 |2480 |-16 |2495 |2443 |212 |

|Sep-09 |2434 |2456 |-18 |2473 |2434 |99 |

|Dec-09 |2400 |2417 |-22 |2431 |2397 |198 |

|Mar-10 |2366 |2379 |-34 |2393 |2366 |109 |

|May-10 |2371 |2372 |-34 |2390 |2371 |14 |

|Jul-10 |0 |2377 |-25 |0 |0 |0 |

|Sep-10 |0 |2377 |-25 |0 |0 |0 |

|Dec-10 |0 |2412 |10 |0 |0 |0 |

|Totals |  |2424 |  |  |  |11350 |

|Wednesday |14th January |2009 |  |  |  |  |

|Month |Open |Price |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |2498 |2398 |-87 |2542 |2367 |7562 |

|Month |Open |Price |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |2385 |2367 |-31 |2398 |2351 |12,920 |

|Month |Open |Price |Change |High |Low |Volume |

|Mar  2009  |2391 |2463 |96 |2492 |2391 |

| | | | | |90,598 |

|Spot Prices (US $ per tonne) |

|  |12th January |13th January |14th January |15th January |16th January |

|Main Crop Ghana, Grade 1 |3054 |3033 |2946 |2915 |3011 |

|Main Crop Ivory Coast, Grade 1 |2898 |2877 |2790 |2759 |2855 |

|Main Crop Nigerian, 1 |2881 |2860 |2773 |2742 |2838 |

|Superior Arriba |2864 |2843 |2756 |2725 |2821 |

|Sanchez f.a.q |2883 |2862 |2775 |2744 |2840 |

|Malaysian 110 |2519 |2498 |2411 |2380 |2476 |

|Sulawesi f.a.q |2701 |2680 |2593 |2562 |2658 |

|Ecuador Cocoa Liquor |4043 |4009 |3869 |3819 |3974 |

|Pure Prime Press African Type Cocoa |6850 |6792 |6555 |6470 |6732 |

|Butter | | | | | |

|10/12% Natural Cocoa Press Cake |1103 |1093 |1055 |1041 |1084 |

|Source: Cocoa Merchant Association |

News

Chocolate: A food we hold sacred

The Wenatchee World Online, WA

By Renee Enna; Chicago Tribune

January 13, 2009

Chocolate has been revered for centuries, starting with the discovery by Mesoamerican societies that cacao pods contained edible ingredients. The tree grew wild in South America. One of the first preparations was a beverage made with water, spices and chilies. (McClatchy photo)

It seems incongruous that the ingredient so integral to, say, a Hershey's Kiss, is the same one that for centuries played a major role in religious and cultural rituals.

STORY TOOLS

Of course, anyone addicted to Hershey's Kisses may not think it strange at all.

Chocolate's reputation for inducing swoons has centuries of recorded history to back it up. It started with the discovery by Mesoamerican societies that the cacao tree's ungainly looking pods contained edible ingredients.

The tree was known to grow wild in South America, and it's possible that as early as 1500 B.C. people were cultivating it and eating the pulp that surrounded the cacao beans, said Mesoamerican archaeologist Meredith L. Dreiss, co-author with Sharon Edgar Greenhill of the upcoming book, "Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods" (University of Arizona Press, $30), and its companion DVD, a film of the same name that Dreiss made with her brother, filmmaker Grant Mitchell.

But it's the pod's beans, not the pulp, that yield the chocolate. The Maya are thought to have perfected the process of grinding the beans into a powder, which they combined with water, spices and chilies to create a drink that was far different from the creamy cocoa we dollop with whipped cream.

"It was either unsweetened or bittersweet (chocolate), it was highly spiced and it wasn't made with milk which was not available to the Mesoamericans, it was made with water," explained chocolatier Mark Sciscenti of Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe, who uses ancient recipes to recreate beverages in the spirit of those times, and which are available on his Web site, .

Cacao took off throughout Central and South America, but it was less a recreational foodstuff than a product of cultural significance used as currency, medicine and in religious ceremonies that ranged from baptism to human sacrifice. And it was not just important to the living. Dreiss said that burial vessels found in Guatemala dating to 400 A.D. not only had chocolate inside them, but that recipes for chocolate drinks were written on the pots.

Christopher Columbus is believed to be the first person to transport cacao beans from the New World to the Old in 1502, according to the National Confectioners Association. The cacao that was brought from the New World by Spanish explorers in the 16th century was a well-kept secret among the royal court. What fascinates Dreiss is that the Spanish were able to keep chocolate a secret for so long: "It wasn't for about 100 years before it starts spreading through the rest of Europe," she said.

Chocolate remained, at first, a drink of the Old World aristocracy, often enjoyed with, yes, milk and the seasonings available to them, such as cinnamon, anise, black pepper, sesame seeds and almonds, Dreiss and Greenhill write. It was the addition of another ingredient, however, that took chocolate to a different level: "For when sugar was added to the bitter but sacred drink of the Maya, this beverage from the New World tropical forests came to belong to the rest of the world." Eventually, the general populace got a taste of what they were missing.

The Industrial Revolution made chocolate available to the masses, and ushered in the Next Big Thing for chocolate, when somebody (it's not clear who) was able to combine the melted cocoa butter (the fat that occurs naturally in cocoa beans) with sugar and cocoa powder to create the first solid eating chocolate.

The invention of the Hershey's Kiss (1907, by the way) was just a matter of time. Maybe we're coming back full circle: The growing popularity of chocolate teamed with chili — a combination marketed as an exotic introduction despite its centuries-old provenance — sees this foodstuff returning to its spicy roots.

Or maybe not.

Chocolate is good for you, and the world

Fair Home, UK

By David Masters

January 13, 2009

Forget your New Year’s resolution to burn off the Christmas pounds for a minute, and listen to this: chocolate is good for you.

Cacao, the fruit used to make chocolate, contains antioxidants and minerals with well known health benefits. Cacao has more antioxidants that green tea or blue berries. Antioxidants reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Useful minerals in cacao include copper, magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium. Magnesium is one of the most deficient minerals in modern eating habits - elsewhere it is only found in seeds, nuts and seaweed.

Fairtrade chocolate is not only good for you - it’s good for the world. Many cacao farmers struggle to make enough money to afford food, medicine, clean water, and school for their children.

On average, cacao farmers earn about £50 a year. Buying fairtrade makes sure that farmers always get a fair price for the cocoa beans they sell - enabling them to feed and educate their families. Go on, treat yourself. You’ll be making the world a better place.

The perks of chocolate

NCA SmartBrief | 01/12/2009

Enjoy the health benefits of cacao by indulging in dark chocolate without a lot of added sugar. Cacao offers antioxidants, magnesium and other minerals. Orlando Sentinel (Fla.) (01/11)

Ivory Coast plan to boost cocoa quality

By Sarah Hills, 12-Jan-2009



The Ivory Coast is taking steps to protect its cocoa industry with a plan to improve the quality of its crop which is said to have fallen in standards over the last decade, according to reports. The country is a leading cocoa grower but there has been a steady decline as now a reported 17 percent of produce does not meet quality norms.

AFP reported that Gilbert Anoh N'Guessan, the president of a management committee to oversee cocoa operation, said that in the early part of the decade "only five percent of the produce" did not respond to quality norms. He added: "We have to move fast."

The Ivory Coast has now launched a programme to improve the situation facing its key export with state funding of between three and 4.5m euros over a 10 to 15 year period. Quality improvement initiatives will include better ways of drying the bean and fighting soil degradation.

The Ivory Coast is the world’s number one supplier of cocoa beans, producing 1.3 million tonnes last year, followed by its neighbor Ghana – at 690,000 tonnes. Together, the two countries account for over half of the world’s cocoa production, which stood at approximately 3.9 million tonnes in 2007, according to FAOSTAT figures.

The 2008/09 season has already been plagued by crop disease, disorganisation and political uncertainty in the Ivory Coast, causing prices to rise on concerns about the supply and size of its harvest. December is usually the peak of the harvesting season, but from October 1 to January 4, arrivals at Ivory Coast ports stood at just 491,000 tonnes, down from nearly double that – 803902 tonnes – a year earlier.

London futures hit their highest level since October 1985 on December 23, closing at £1820 a tonne as speculative investors surged onto the market on the back of reports of extremely tight supply.

Ivory Coast Cocoa Arrivals Oct 1 To Jan 11 Seen -27% On Yr

ABIDJAN (Dow Jones)--Arrivals of cocoa beans from Ivory Coast's farms at the ports the Oct. 1 to Jan. 11 period, the first 15 weeks of the 2008-09 season, are expected at around 600,000 metric tons, down 27% on the 825,000 tons in the same period last season, according to industry estimates obtained Wednesday.

ICE Cocoa Review: Drops To One-Month Lows On Economic Jitters

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Bearish U.S. retail sales data ahead of fears for more indicators of economic weakness triggered broad-scale selling that left ICE Futures U.S. cocoa near one-month lows Wednesday.

COFFEE

Indonesia's Sulawesi Cocoa Bean Exports Fall 10 Pct in 2008

Source: Reuters

14/01/2009

Jakarta, Jan 14 - Cocoa bean exports from Indonesia's main producing island of Sulawesi fell nearly 10 percent to 274,994 tonnes in 2008, from 304,353 tonnes in 2007, as output dropped, according to trade data.

Sulawesi cocoa beans are mostly shipped from Makassar, in South Sulawesi province, and from Palu, in Central Sulawesi. Exports from the port in Makassar fell 14.5 percent to 154,795 tonnes in 2008, while exports via Palu declined 2.5 percent to 120,199 tonnes. "Some reasons for the decline include ageing cocoa trees and poor handling of diseases," Zulhefi Sikumbang, secretary general of Indonesian Cocoa Association (Askindo), told Reuters.

South, Southeast, West, and Central Sulawesi provinces normally account for about three-quarters of Indonesia's total output, but cocoa trees in Sulawesi have been hit by the spread of a deadly fungal disease called Vascular-Streak Dieback (VSD).

Sikumbang said that he expects cocoa production from new growing areas, such as West Sumatra and Papua, to cover any further declines from Sulawesi in 2009. Askindo estimates cocoa bean output in Indonesia, the world's number three cocoa producer, was 480,000 tonnes in 2008, down from 520,000 tonnes in 2007, mainly due to the spread of VSD.

Cocoa is among Indonesia's top three plantation commodities by export value. Exports of cocoa beans and products were valued at nearly $1 billion in 2007, according to government data. Indonesian cocoa farmers benefited from good prices in 2008 as the price of local beans, which normally tracks New York futures, hit a historic high of over 27,000 rupiah ($2.42) per kg in July. On Wednesday, Sulawesi fair average cocoa beans were quoted at 23,100-23,700 rupiah per kg, compared to 23,500-24,000 rupiah per kg a week earlier in Makassar.

Cameroon Exports 116,006 Tons Cocoa Beans Aug-Dec -NCCB.

YAOUNDE,  Cameroon,  Jan  14,  2009  (Dow  Jones  Commodities News via Comtex) -- Cameroon  exported 116,006 metric tons of cocoa beans between August and December of  the  ongoing  2008-09 season, up from 97,984 tons shipped out during the same period  in  the  last  season,  according to data released to Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board. According  to  the statistics, the country exported 40,057 tons of cocoa beans in December,  up  from  34,271  tons  in  December  2007. Cameroon produced a record 187,532  tons of cocoa beans during the 2007-08 season, which runs from August to July,  2%  more  than the previous season. The NCCB is Cameroon's quality control watchdog  for  commodities. 

The Market

MARKET TALK: ICE Cocoa Drops On Profit-Taking; Holds Support.

Jan  12,  2009  (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- (Dow Jones) - ICE cocoa futures are trimming losses off of three-week lows as suspected profit- taking  pressured the market, an analyst says. March cotton is down $89 at $2,496 a metric ton, off of a test of $2,450 support. May cocoa is down $73 at $2,506. A close  below $2,500 could invite a test of $2,250 support basis March, says Jimmy Tintle,  analysts  at  Transworld  Futures  in  Tampa. ICE cocoa warehouse stocks decreased  by  3,318 145-pound bags Friday to total 2.125 million bags, according to  exchange  data.  Volume  is estimated at 12068 lots, ICE reports. Liffe March cocoa is down GBP24 at GBP1,784. (HEH).

SOFTS-Fund sales pummel sugar, coffee and cocoa

01.12.09

By Rene Pastor and Nigel Hunt

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Soft commodity futures stumbled Monday on across-the-board investment fund sales as lower crude oil values and worries over global economies kept markets on the defensive, analysts said. The soft markets, particularly sugar, were also believed to be under pressure from the annual rebalancing of portfolios by index funds. Given the recent firmness in the complex, some analysts feel the pullback was to be expected.

Comment On This Story

"Coffee and sugar are in a pause that refreshes," said Jack Scoville, vice president of brokers the Price Group in Chicago. He said sugar should enjoy some support from supply problems in India and the prospect of some consumer interest down the road.

But a trader in London cautioned that the inability of the March raw sugar contract to finish over 12 cents put pressure on the market. "The problem is it hasn't been able to hold 12 cents and a few (speculators) have been selling it short, expecting it to go down to 11.50 cents," the trader said.

New York's March raw sugar futures contract dropped 0.58 cent, or 4.81 percent, to end at 11.47 cents per lb, just above the day's low of 11.45 cents. London's March white sugar contract dropped $12.60, or 3.71 percent, to close at $326.50 per tonne.

COCOA AND COFFEE STUMBLE

The rest of the complex was also hit by investment fund sales, with currency-related pressure piling onto and depressing cocoa futures, analysts said. The weak sterling pressured U.S. cocoa futures, sucking in the heavy selling that in turn sparked automatic sell orders in the market, they said.

New York's March cocoa contract futures sank $79, or 3.05 percent, to finish at $2,506 per tonne. London's May cocoa contract declined 19 pounds to finish at 1,745 pounds per tonne. The market continued to monitor slow port arrivals of beans in top grower Ivory Coast. Cocoa arrivals in Ivorian ports hit 531,000 tonnes from Oct. 1 to Jan. 11, against 835,139 tonnes in the same period in 2007/08, exporters there estimated Monday.

The situation was no different in coffee futures. New York's March arabica coffee futures fell 2.40 cents, or 2.05 percent, to finish at $1.145 per lb. London's March robusta contract slid $35, or 2.05 percent, to end at $1,665 per tonne.

SOFTS-Cocoa stumbles late as economic gloom bites

By Rene Pastor and Nigel Hunt

NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Cocoa reeled from late investment liquidation while coffee and sugar drifted lower on Wednesday as investors in soft commodities remained worried about the global economic slowdown.

James Cordier, analyst for brokers in Florida, said a cocoa was vulnerable to a pullback after a surge in values. "People are hunkering down," said Cordier, adding that global market gyrations remain a key mover of soft commodity futures.

Analysts said the final batch of selling tied to the annual reweighting of commodity portfolios by index funds also put pressure on soft agricultural markets.

Cocoa got an early boost from higher-than-expected European grind figures, which hit 349,351 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2008, the European Cocoa Association said. "The market took it positively because people had begun to worry that the figure might come in significantly lower," said Jonathan Parkman, head of the agri-commodity brokerage at Fortis Commodity Derivatives.

New York's March cocoa contract fell $87, down 3.5 percent on the day, to close at $2,398 per tonne. London's May cocoa contract sank 43 pounds or by 2.43 percent to finish at 1,721 pounds per tonne.

SUGAR LOSES GROUND DESPITE CHINESE NEWS, COFFEE FALLS

Sugar futures could not sustain an advance and slipped into negative territory when investor sales pressured the market.

China's largest sugar-producing region, Guangxi, was hit by freezing weather, causing possible damage to cane from frost. But the news did not lift prices.

Millers in the western Indian state of Maharashtra produced 2.7 million tonnes of sugar in the current season until Jan. 13, down 6.9 percent from the same period a year ago, Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of Mahatashtra State Co-op Sugar Factories Federation Ltd., told Reuters.

New York's March raw sugar contract futures lost 0.10 cent to end at 11.43 cents per lb. London's March white sugar contract dropped $1.20 to close at $324.60 per tonne.

Coffee also slipped due to index fund reweighting sales, but attention is turning to a tighter supply outlook.

New York's March arabica coffee futures shed 0.10 cent to finish at $1.1465 per lb. London's March robusta contract lost $11 to end at $1,638 per tonne.

ICE Cocoa Slips to One-Month Low, Coffee Mixed

Source: Reuters

15/01/2009

London, Jan 15 - Cocoa prices tumbled in late trade on Wednesday with prices on ICE slipping to a one-month low despite bullish European grinding figures, dealers said. "There was a buyer the last couple of days and it looked as if they just ran out of ammo (ammunition) and once the buying stopped...we broke the lows in New York and then carried on down," one cocoa dealer said.

March cocoa on ICE ................
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