Cocoa Market Report for January 2025
Abidjan, 17 February 2025 – The International Cocoa Organization releases the Cocoa Market Report for January 2025. The current report highlights the following insights:
- Cocoa prices in January continued to remain liable to rapid changes due to challenges facing the cocoa market. Weather during the month were reported to be less conducive for the development of the mid-crop in Côte d’Ivoire and supported prices.
- By mid-January, it was observed that a turning point in cocoa demand may have started as the major regional cocoa associations in Europe, North America and Asia reported a decline in their quarterly cocoa grindings data. It is worth pointing out that data published by the European Cocoa Association (ECA) and Cocoa Association of Asia (CAA) for the quarter Q4-2024, were at their lowest levels since 2020 – which was during the era of COVID-19. It is also likely that the high cocoa prices may have pressured manufacturers and led to a reduction in the amount of cocoa processed.
- High prices have also raised a few financial issues:
- (i) the increased capital needed to buy, stock and trade beans;
- (ii) the increased price risk exposure; and (iii) the demand for higher margins in futures hedges.
- However, recent statistics indicate that worldwide, the average unit price of chocolate confectionery products has increased. Rising production costs (cocoa, energy, sugar) are the main causes. This resulted in a global decrease in consumption volume. But the decrease was less than proportional to the price rise, so the overall final consumer expenditure augmented.
Caution should be exercised in the interpretation of the following steps as they are just guidelines.
You can download the complete report by clicking here.
