Brazil's Bahia cocoa crop falls

Deliveries of cocoa to warehouses in Brazil's top growing state Bahia slipped in the past week, the Bahia Commercial Association said, but output for the time of year has kept above average for weeks even as the main crop fades. Output from other states through January 5 fell sharply from a week earlier, Bahia-based analyst Thomas Hartmann said, as producers finished clearing accumulated stocks that boosted sales in those areas in January.
Brazil exported 5,231 tonnes in beans-equivalent of cocoa and derived products in January, most of which was unsweetened powder, butter, liquor and cake. Only 15 tonnes of total exports were in the form of unprocessed beans. That was down from 5,442 tonnes in January of 2011. Farm gate prices in Bahia ranged from 66 to 67.50 reais ($38.47 to $39.34), up from 65 to 67 reais in the previous week. Brazil is the world's sixth-ranked cocoa producer, having fallen from second place in the early 1990s after a fungus causing witch's broom disease decimated Bahia plantations that have since struggled to recover.