Cocoa prices, which averaged about $2,328 a metric ton this year, will trade sideways in the season that started last month, according to chocolate makers Barry Callebaut AG and Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ)
While the global cocoa market will face a small shortage in 2012-13, chocolate demand will be “slightly” below historical levels, said Steven Retzlaff, president of global sourcing and cocoa at Barry Callebaut, the largest maker of bulk chocolate and a supplier to Nestle SA. (NESN) The market will be easier to predict this year as the weather hasn’t been extreme, said Tim Cofer, European president for Mondelez, which spends $6 billion a year buying raw materials and has a 15 percent share of the chocolate market.
“From a weather conditions standpoint, we are not seeing severe droughts or floods, so in the near-term, it looks like a more predictable and sideways market,” Cofer said yesterday in an interview in top producer Ivory Coast at a conference organized by the London-based International Cocoa Organization, which represents 41 members.
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