Ivorian weekly cocoa arrivals fall at harvest end14:10 GMT

Tag : west african
Cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coastfell to 15,023 tonnes in the week of June 30-July 6 from 18,828 inthe previous week, exporters said on Friday, but quality wasimproving as the season approached its close.
Accumulated port arrivals in the West African country for the2007/2008 season to July 6 reached 1,255,949 tonnes, up from1,146,320 tonnes in the same period a year ago, according to datafrom exporters obtained by Reuters.
Exporters forecast weekly volumes of beans arriving at ports in theworld's No. 1 cocoa grower would continue to fall, largely due tothe mid-crop's tailing off and the summer lull.
But they hoped the quality of the beans would hold through to the2008/2009 season, which is due to start in October.
"We are getting to the end of the harvest and we are noticing thevolumes reducing -- that is completely normal," said the salesdirector of a European export company."
"But what pleases us most about this end of season is that qualityis improving," the director added.
Another director of an export company said he expected volumes ofbeans to continue dropping to about 9,000 tonnes in the comingweeks.
"Purchases are in freefall at the moment so we shouldn't expecthigh quantities," the second director said.
"It is true the quality is satisfying at the moment but what isimportant is that it continues into next season," he added.
Last week, Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) said it waskeeping its nonbinding indicative farm-gate price for cocoa at 500CFA francs ($1.20) per kg for the July to September period,unchanged from the previous April-June period.
The guideline price for the July-September period in 2007 was 400CFA francs a kg.
In New York, ICE benchmark September cocoa futures were up $12 at$2,922 a tonne by 9:17 a.m. on Friday, trading from $2,904 to$2,950.
Traders said the market was continuing to consolidate after fallingsharply from 28-year highs recently.