Cocoa bean arrivals in eastern Indonesia's Sulawesi region this week were half what they were a year ago because of poor crop quality, amid strong demand from Malaysia, Asia's top grinder, traders said on Thursday. High waste content and small size beans required more time for growers to sort out beans. Pest infestations have become a regular feature at cocoa plantations in Sulawesi Island since the 1980s, hampering Indonesia's efforts to improve bean quality and expand its market. Daily arrivals only reached 450 tonnes this week compared with up to 1,000 tonnes last year," said one Makassar trader in the key-growing belt of South Sulawesi province.
The main harvest is currently underway in south, central, and south-east Sulawesi, which accounts for 75 percent of Indonesia's output. "I think big volumes will come at least in June," she said.
Daily arrivals have increased more than 10 percent to 450 tonnes from last week, weighing down prices that were already slumping due to weaker New York futures.
Sulawesi beans prices collected from farmers and middlemen were offered in a wide range due to variety of bean qualities. Offers started from 11,450 to 11,700 rupiah ($1.21 to $1.24) per kilogram on Thursday, or about two percent lower than a week ago.
In New York futures, the benchmark July cocoa contract dipped $6, or 0.4 percent, to close at $1,491 a tonne on Wednesday. September also declined $6 to end at $1,513 a tonne.
Discounts on Sulawesi beans were virtually unchanged at $230 a tonne below New York July, on a free-on-board basis. One vessel carrying 10,000 tonnes bound for Brazil had finished loading, while another one heading to the United States is loading 8,500 tonnes of cocoa beans in Central Sulawesi's Paul from Makassar.
Comments
Comments are closed.