Cocoa tumbles as Europe's demand wanes

Cocoa futures have tumbled in commodities trading today (July 12th) in both London and New York as a result of weaker-than-expected second-quarter European cocoa-grindings data.

This is an indicator that the continent's appetite for chocolate is decreasing - perhaps due to the strict austerity measures imposed across the region - causing hard-up consumers to reduce their confection expenditure.

European Cocoa Association data - which measures the amount of processed cocoa beans - shows grindings plunged by almost 18 per cent to 292,551 tonnes year-on-year, marking the sharpest decline in 12 years.

Chocolate had once been considered recession-proof, but while a trend for lower demand is not a concern in itself, what is worrying is the pace of decline.

Bloomberg has reported that Ecobank Transnational expects cocoa prices to be weak in the current half due to this slowing demand.

At 16:40 BST, Cocoa Futures were down 3.5 per cent to $1551 per tonne.