Indonesian cocoa bean prices rose this week, buoyed by gains in cocoa futures while rains in the country's cocoa-growing belt of Slaws island delayed bean delivery. Prices of Sulawesi's fair-average cocoa beans collected from farmers and merchants were quoted at 16,650-16,700 rupiah ($1.85) a kilogram, up from 15,700-16,000 rupiah two weeks ago.
Cocoa futures at the New York Board of Trade peaked to a new four-year high on June 29, with the benchmark September contract hitting $2,064 a tonne following an attack on the prime minister of the world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast. On Tuesday, the September contract gained $11 to settle at $2,062 a tonne. Indonesia's cocoa beans prices closely track New York cocoa futures.
"It's mostly gains in cocoa futures that lifted up prices, nothing else," said a dealer in Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesia and the key port for cocoa exports.
"People are looking for cocoa beans, so prices will stay where they are," the trader said. Last week, the London-based International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) revised down the global cocoa deficit for 2006/2007 (September-October) to between 100,000 and 125,000 tonnes, from 125,000-150,000 tonnes made in June. Gains in cocoa futures have kept prices up despite rising beans supply as more cocoa-growing areas started harvesting.
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