Global chocolate binge has Olam predicting smaller cocoa surplus

The world just can’t get enough chocolate.

With “tremendous” demand in emerging markets looking set to continue this season, the world’s third-largest cocoa processor is projecting a sharply smaller global surplus. Excess cocoa supplies that reached a record last season will probably drop to about 50,000 metric tons, said Gerry Manley, head of cocoa at Olam International.

Demand has picked up in Asia particularly, where countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, India and China are consuming more cocoa powder used in products like cookies and ice-cream, Manley said. And while West African growers may reap a second year of bumper crops, top producer Ivory Coast is unlikely to repeat last season’s record harvest.

“We are very positive on demand,” Manley said in an interview at the company’s London offices. “We are seeing good demand for cocoa powder across the world, but mainly emerging markets are in a leading position there.”

Benchmark cocoa futures traded in London tumbled 23 per cent last year, the biggest decline since 2011, as output climbed to a record in Ivory Coast, while Ghana, the No 2 grower, also reaped a big crop. The large African harvests helped push the global surplus to 371,000 tons, according to estimates from the Abidjan-based International Cocoa Organization.

This season, global cocoa processing will probably rise by more than 3 per cent, Manley said, adding that the forecast is conservative. Processing exceeded 5 per cent growth in 2016-17. About 8,000 new products were launched in the confectionery market last year, Manley said.

Lower costs are boosting demand, with the global chocolate confectionery market expanding 2.3 per cent in the three months to June and 2.2 per cent the following quarter, the world’s top cocoa processor Barry Callebaut AG said earlier this month, citing data from analytics firm Nielsen. The rebound came after at least six consecutive quarters of contractions.

Changing consumer habits mean some traders may be underestimating growth. Trends including online shopping as well as the rise of artisan shops and bakeries are often missed by traditional data sources, Manley said.

Global cocoa powder demand is forecast to grow at 5 per cent and Olam is looking to capitalise on that. The Singapore-based company is investing to increase its capacity to mill cocoa cake into powder in Asia and is also planning a new milling facility just outside Chicago, Manley said. The factory should be commissioned later this month.

Demand for cocoa butter and cocoa liquor, used to make chocolate bars, is also growing and the market is tight despite last season’s record surplus, Manley said. That has helped boost cocoa-processing margins, with the so-called combined ratio — the price of cocoa products relative to beans — reaching the highest in more than a decade this year, according to KnowledgeCharts.

“There’s a lot of cocoa which is available today that’s not of the quality that we can put through our processing factories nor can chocolate industries use,” Manley said. “What we have seen, and it follows on from the El Nino year, is a destruction in quality and a reduction in fat content in beans, an increase in free-fatty-acid levels, which have served to deteriorate much of the cocoa that’s today in the surplus figures.”

“Extraordinarily” good weather will probably ensure a large crop of 1.9 million to 1.95 million tons in Ivory Coast this season, down from over 2.1 million tons last season, Manley said. Ghana production is forecast little changed at 800,000 tons, while output will decline in Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic, which was hit by hurricanes earlier this year.

There has been very little smuggling between Ivory Coast and Ghana, partly due to better border controls, Manley said. Olam doesn’t currently see a need for concern this year about the Harmattan, the dry desert winds that usually blow from December and can damage cocoa pods.

“We’ve had extremely good weather, otherwise this could have equally been a deficit year,” Manley said. “We do believe low prices will curtail production and we do believe there’s only so much further that Ivory Coast can grow.”

While a second year of surpluses will probably keep cocoa prices range-bound, macro events could force speculators to cover their short positions.