Cocoa : recent world market trends in relation to stabilization problems and policies

Abstract

In the past two years there has been a major change in the world cocoa market. Until, 1959, world production had been rising at an annual rate of about 3 per cent, but in the two subsequent crop years, output rose by some 14 per cent, per annum. Production in I96O/6I, at 1, 17 million tons, was 40 per cent high & r than the average for 1956-58 (see Table l). Latest indications are that output in the current season, I96I/62, may be in the region of 1.18 million tons. World consumption has continued to rise, but more slowly; consumption in 1961, at a million tons, was about one-sixth higher than the 1956-58 'average. Consumption is expected to rise to about 1,1 million in 1962, But the upsurge in production has resulted in a sharp increase in stocks, by some 300,000 tons (16 weeks current consumption) in the throe years 1959-61.