By M. Shankar
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Cocoa advanced for a third day in London as exports from Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer of the beans, declined 14 percent last month. Robusta coffee and white sugar fell. Shipments dropped to 153,036 metric tons in December from 178,597 tons a year earlier, according to data supplied by the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro today. Cocoa-product exports rose to 28,323 tons from 24,127 tons a year earlier.
Production in Ivory Coast will probably drop 4 percent for the season that began Oct. 1, Brussels-based financial-services company Fortis said last month. Ghana, the second-biggest grower, will also have a smaller crop, International Cocoa Organization statistician Laurent Pipitone said last week.
Cocoa for March delivery rose 22 pounds, or 1.4 percent, to 1,800 pounds ($2,522) a ton as of 11:29 a.m. on London’s Liffe exchange.
London-traded cocoa rallied 71 percent last year, the biggest annual increase since at least 1990, on concern that a decline in the Ivorian crop would dent global supply.
The increase in prices, coupled with the economic slowdown and weakness of the pound and the dollar, prompted Lindt & Spruengli AG, Switzerland’s oldest chocolatier, to say 2009 may be the toughest period in its 164-year history.
“The worldwide uncertainty prevailing in 2009 will probably be more challenging than at any other time,” the company said in a statement today.
Cocoa futures for March delivery fell $85, or 3.5 percent, to $2,378 a ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.
Robusta coffee for March delivery fell $7, or 0.4 percent, to $1,650 a ton on Liffe. White sugar slumped $4.20, or 1.2 percent, to $340.80 a ton.
To contact the reporter on this story: M. Shankar in London at mshankar@bloomberg.net
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