Cocoa premiums from Ivory Coast and Ghana steady

Premiums buyers prepared to pay for cocoa from Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's biggest growers, were little changed this week, buoyed by speculation shortages will emerge, according to three traders.Ghanaian beans traded in Europe at £100 (Dh598.7) to £120 a metric tonne above the price on the NYSE Liffe exchange in London, according to the people, who declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.The premium was £110 to £120 a tonne last week, three traders said on July 28. Ivory Coast beans were at a premium of £60 to £70, the people said. That compares with £60 to £75 last week."The fact that cocoa prices have not fallen at a sharper rate so far is partly due to the fact that a market deficit is expected for crop year 2011-12 on account of lower production," Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, wrote in a report.Cocoa supplies may lag behind demand by 59,000 tonnes in the year starting October 1, according to a Bloomberg survey of eight brokers, traders and analysts. Production will be 362,250 tonnes higher than consumption in the current season, a record surplus, the survey showed.The price fell 9.4 per cent in London and 8.9 per cent in New York over the past month on speculation of increasing supplies from West Africa, with Ivorian output now expected at a record 1.5 million tonnes, according to the Bloomberg survey.There are concerns about the quality of the beans, Commerzbank said."The quantity of the crop is not saying anything about the quality of the cocoa beans, where there have evidently been losses recently," Fritsch wrote.Ratios in Europe for cocoa butter, processed from beans and used to make chocolate, were 1.17 to 1.2 times the cocoa price on NYSE Liffe, four people involved in the trade said. The ratio determines the price paid by buyers for cocoa butter.Cocoa for September delivery dropped £3, or 0.2 per cent, to £1,833 a tonne on NYSE Liffe Friday.Cocoa for September delivery dropped $11, or 0.4 per cent, to $2,905 a tonne on ICE Futures US in New York. From / Gulf News