Cocoa fell to a one-week low in London on speculation rainfall

Cocoa fell to a one-week low in London on speculation rainfall in top grower Ivory Coast will boost prospects for the crop. Sugar advanced and coffee slid.

Growing areas in West Africa, the main growing region, got rain last week, with the heaviest amounts falling over southwestern Cameroon and southern Ivory Coast, MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said in a report e-mailed on May 21. Ivory Coast is harvesting the smaller of two annual crops known as the mid-crop. Wet weather at this time of the year usually favors the development of the next crop.

“More rain in the Ivory Coast was seen as beneficial for the mid-crop there,” Arthur Liming, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, said in a report e-mailed yesterday.

Cocoa for delivery in July slid 0.5 percent to 1,529 pounds ($2,310) a metric ton by 11:01 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. The price fell to as low as 1,525 pounds, the lowest since May 17. Cocoa for July delivery dropped 0.9 percent to $2,263 a ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

July cocoa yesterday in New York fell below its recent trading range, Liming said.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-24/cocoa-falls-to-one-week-low-on-ivory-coast-rains-sugar-advances