|
A
US-based foundation promoting cocoa farming has asked
the Philippine government to encourage Filipino farmers
to plant the crop to help boost global supplies, a
Bloomberg report said.
In a
report datelined Washington, D.C., the World Cocoa
Foundation—whose members include Nestlé SA, the world’s
biggest food company, and Hershey Co., the largest US
chocolate maker—asked Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap
“to plant cocoa in the Southeast Asian nation to help
boost global supply, allowing consumers to diversify
raw-material sources and helping stabilize prices.”
“By
diversifying the sources of supply, companies reduce
their risk” in the event of cocoa plantations being
damaged by adverse weather or pests, Louise Hilsen, vice
president for government relations at Nestlé USA, told
Yap while at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Yap is
on an official US visit to witness the signing of
various biofuel contracts with American companies.
The
foundation promotes cocoa farming around the world,
providing assistance on ways to manage plantations,
reduce crop losses and access markets.
The
industry group also said demand for cocoa may grow at a
slower pace this year because of higher prices.
Consumption may grow between 2 and 2.5 percent in the
year ending September 2008, after gaining 3 percent in
2006-07, Karl Walk, chairman of the World Cocoa
Foundation, said in an interview.
US cocoa
demand, which accounts for more than 10 percent of
global consumption, may be unchanged this year at
400,000 tons, Walk said.
Cocoa
futures gained 62 percent in New York in the past year,
reaching $2,845 a metric ton Wednesday, the highest for
a most-active contract since April 1980, according to
Nathan Golz, a research assistant at Wachovia Securities
in Saint Louis.
“Growth
in consumption will not be as robust as it has been,”
Walk said. Rising prices “may further curb expansion.”
Prices
of cocoa, mostly used to make confectionery, soap and
cosmetics, climbed this week after the International
Cocoa Organization said a global-supply shortfall was
wider than expected last year and will persist this
year.
Demand
will exceed production by 51,000 tons this season, the
London-based group said in a report on its web site
February 29.
The
shortfall last year was 299,000 tons, compared with a
previous estimate of 242,000 tons, it said. (Bloomberg)
|
