Prices of chocolates to shoot up

International cocoa prices are rising after a call for a ban on cocoa from Cote d’Ivoire.

Civic organisations are asking chocolate manufacturers to take up their responsibilities as many of these companies are not transpar­ent on where they stand.

Internationally recognised President Allas­sane Ouattara’s call to put a ban on export of cocoa from Cote d’Ivoire is being heard. The Dutch Green Party (GroenLinks) has asked the Dutch government to support Ouattara’s call for the embargo.

The Dutch capital, Amsterdam, is the largest trans-shipment port of cocoa in the world. Cargill, one of the biggest global trad­ing companies of cocoa, has already made an announcement that it was suspending cocoa  purchases from Cote d’Ivoire. However a ban on importing from the world’s largest cocoa producer could have some long-term effects on the global cocoa trade.

Bob Stuurman of the Dutch cocoa importer Huyser Moller ensures that the consumer will still be able to buy chocolate. “There will be enough chocolate bars in the shops and even in the weeks ahead,” Mr. Stuurman says. “I don’t see an immediate problem in the weeks to come. Forward sales and productions are all based on contracts which were concluded ear­lier so the price for that is set.”

However, prices for cocoa beans have been rising rapidly since the tumult in Cote d’Ivoire. Traders now pay US$3,394.56 per tonne compared to US$2,910.31 per tonne in November last year when Ivorians went to the polls. Dutch chocolate manufacturer, Verkade, expects that, if there is significant increase of cocoa prices, prices for consumers will have to rise too at one point. So consumers may have to pay a higher price for a simple chocolate bar in the second half of 20 II when new contracts between traders and manufactures will be con­cluded.

Cocoa importers such as Mr Stuurman say that the bulk of Cote d’Ivoire’s crop has already been exported as we are in the middle of the harvest season. “Quite a number of cocoa has already been registered before Ouat­tara’s announcement was made.” This cocoa will probably be released so there will still be a flow of cocoa from ships heading to Amster­dam.

It is rather ironic that the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland which started last week is co-­chaired by one of the world’s largest manufacturer of chocolate, Nestle. Avaaz, an interna­tional civic organisation, hopes that Nestle will address the issue at the forum. “We have started an online petition to persuade multina­tionals to ban the cocoa from Cote d’Ivoire,” says Alex Wilks, campaign director of Avaaz.

“We have been trying to contact Nestle, but they have not given us an answer yet. Many of these companies are not transparent on where they stand. All we are calling for is the head of Nestle to take the honest and prin­ciple approach that he is advocating at Davos and extend that to his own operation in Cote d’Ivoire,” Wilks stated.

A month-long ban on cocoa exports is like­ly to fuel smuggling into neighbouring countries such as Ghana. But according to the spokesperson of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Noah Amenyah, any company found to have pur­chased smuggled cocoa would be sanctioned.”We will not accept any such practice, especially because it could compromise the quality of the Ghanaian bean,” Amenyah stated.

Cocoa arrivals in Cote d’ Ivoire were up 13 percent from last year’s levels as of January 23, according to official figures seen by Reuters for the period just before presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara declared an export ban.

For the most recent week, data from the Bourse du Cafe et Cacao (BCC) for January 17­23 showed 62,209 tonnes of beans were declared at the ports, up from 32,923 tonnes in the same week of the 2009/2010 season.

In a related development, Danish shipping company, Maersk, has halted cocoa exports from Cote d’Ivoire and stopped taking new orders for imports to the country, in line with European Union restrictions, an official at the company has said.

Maersk is the main shipper of lvorian cocoa beans to buyers in the United States and Asia and one of the world’s top container carriers.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the decision was taken after the European Union imposed sanctions on Cote d’Ivoire’s incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who was locked in a power struggle with rival Alassane Ouattara and had refused international calls to stand-down.

The EU restrictions imposed on January 15 referred to EU-registered ships but some analysts suggested shipping firms might get around the ban by using ships registered elsewhere.

(Source: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2011/01/31/prices-of-chocolates-to-shoot-up/)