Brazil cocoa output stable

SAO PAULO: Cocoa deliveries from Brazil's main cocoa state Bahia declined only slightly in the week to Sept. 18, meaning it should hit the upper end of forecast output if this pace holds another fortnight.

Data from the Bahia Commercial Association showed that arrivals that week from the state totaled 37,775 60-kg bags, only a few hundred bags less than in the previous week despite the crop having entered into its declining phase.

Deliveries from other cocoa growing states actually increased during the week, though Bahia-based cocoa analyst Thomas Hartmann said some of this quantity may have been stockpiled in previous weeks due to logistic hurdles.

Hartmann said the mid-crop harvest now drawing to an end could reach a target of 1.25 million 60-kg bags if the flow of cocoa from Bahia continued at the same level, though by this late stage, cocoa output is usually tailing off.

Copyright Reuters, 2011