GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (RFD-TV) — Candy makers are paying more for cocoa while facing tighter sugar availability this year.
CoBank Analyst Billy Roberts says cocoa prices are well above where they were last year at this time.
“As recently as March or April of this year, we’ve seen those cocoa prices kind of trend down to about the $3,000 per ton level on New York futures trading. Those prices started to increase a bit more once some concerns started to surface about this year’s harvest and especially once concerns about the El Nino weather pattern that started to emerge really started to take hold in the industry and influence what some of those futures traders were expecting in terms of this year’s harvest.”
Roberts says candy makers are also dealing with challenges surrounding this year’s sugar crop.
“Drought-related reductions in planted acreage of sugar beets, some relatively lower sugar prices have impacted growers, a lot of high input costs which are impacting pretty much every facet of the ingredient supply chain, and some uncertainty overall in the sugar space about sugar demand from consumers because a lot of concern there stems from consumers’ continued embrace of GLP-1s. Regardless, it’s still impacting the amount of sugar that’s actually available on the market.”
Pests have created another challenge for sugar this year, with the pasture mealybug taking a big bite out of Louisiana fields.
