JAKARTA: Cocoa butter ratios traded little changed at their lowest levels in about three months, dealers said on Friday, as demand ebbed after the peak buying season ended with expectations of an uptick from the second half of the year.
Cocoa butter, a key ingredient of chocolate, was offered at about 1.80 times London futures, unchanged from last month and near its lowest since late November. Prices are determined by multiplying a ratio, whose value is set by grinders, with relevant London cocoa or New York futures.
Chocolate sales normally surge in the main consuming regions of Europe and North America during the key holidays of Christmas and Valentine's Day.
"We are entering a very silent period," said a Jakarta-based trader. "The busy seasons are over, so the next busy season, when people start looking to buy again, will be in the second half."
In Indonesia, the world's third-largest producer after Ivory Coast and Ghana, exports of cocoa beans from the main growing island of Sulawesi dropped 2 percent to 7,790.50 tonnes in February.
Overall output in Indonesia is forecast to rise by as much as 11 percent in 2013 to between 450,000 and 500,000 tonnes.
Cocoa beans are ground to produce roughly equal parts of butter and powder, which is also used in chocolate, beverages and ice cream.
Powder prices were between $2,600 and $2,700 a tonne, unchanged from last week, as many chocolate makers turned their backs on the physical market.
Many dealers see ratios weakening further this month, if chocolate makers fail to buy on dips.
Outside Asia, a second straight week of abundant showers and sunshine across Ivory Coast's principal cocoa regions is improving growing conditions ahead of the April-to-September mid-crop harvest, farmers and analysts said.
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