LONDON: London cocoa futures on ICE hit seven-month peaks on Wednesday as the market remained concerned about a strong or potentially very strong El Nino weather pattern wreaking climate havoc in key growing regions.
Raw sugar scaled near two-month peaks, meanwhile, as oil prices rallied.
COCOA: London cocoa was up 7 percent at £4,562 a metric ton at 1423 GMT, having hit a seven-month top of £4,613.
“Market participants are wondering where renewed selling pressure in cocoa might come from. At the very least, Cote d’Ivoire is well pre-sold,” a dealer said.
The United Nations weather agency raised its El Nino forecast to “strong” on Friday and warned it could further revise it to “very strong”.
El Nino is especially risky for cocoa. Prices for the chocolate ingredient nearly tripled in 2024 as the West African harvest failed amid a moderate-to-strong El Nino that ran from mid-2023 to mid-2024.
New York cocoa rose 6.6 percent to USD6,139 a ton, having hit a six-month high of USD6,224 a ton.
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