Cocoa Prices Rise on Supply Worries

NEW YORKCocoa for May delivery commands over the July futures tripled on speculation supplies in Europe will be limited before the May contract expires, reported Bloomberg.

Cocoa for May delivery was 42 pounds ($54.53) a ton more expensive than the July futures in London on NYSE Liffe, up from 13 pounds on May 10 and compared to a discount on May 8. The May contract ends trading on May 15 and delivery follows the next day. The May contract rose 27 pounds and the July contract was down 1 pound. Cocoa inventories with a valid grading certificate in warehouses monitored by NYSE Liffe were 89,580 metric tons as of April 29, exchange data showed. Beans under other categories were 52,570 tons and the delivery for the expired March futures contract was 72,350 tons.

"The spread should stay firm until the last trading day on speculation of limited supplies in European warehouses," Jerome Jourquin, head of agricultural commodity derivatives at Aurel BGC in Paris, told Bloomberg.