Futures contracts for coco went down severely in a month in London following the two-day mutiny that recently just ended that immobilized multiple cities in Ivory Coast, the largest producer of cocoa in the world.
President Alassane Ouattara said he had come to an agreement with soldiers who had blocked roads in one of the largest cocoa areas, Bouake in Daloa and Abidjan, the commercial capital. The protests began on Friday with soldiers demanding for higher wages, payment of bonuses and better conditions of living.
The disturbance supported the prices of cocoa on Friday, taking last week’s gains to 5.1 percent.
According to an email written by Micky Donovan, a broker at Sucden Financial Ltd. in London, "The market was shaken by the Ivorian unrest Friday". He further added that the event caused major unrest before concluding. “The market is still fundamentally bearish.”
The Prices of Cocoa
The March delivery for cocoa fell 3.2 percent, the most since December 9, to $2,143 or 1,762 pounds per metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The futures for the same month in New York dropped 3.3 percent $2,186 per ton.
Residents say that the barricades have been lifted and the roads have been reopened. Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday, that a spokesman for the soldiers stated that they were satisfied with the deal.
Futures contracts for cocoa has stumbled 23 percent last year, the most since 2011. Traders expect that supplies will improve as bumper crops in West Africa will help return the market to surplus.