Ghana finds no cocoa buyers in the first offer since $400 premium

According to Bloomberg people familiar with the issue said the beans was offered on Wednesday.

Ghana’s Cocoa Marketing Company, which is responsible for selling the nation’s cocoa, offered beans for 2020-21 to traders made no deals because the prices were too high.

Prior to this, Ghana makes offers only around September or October. But this is to test the market after Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire introduced a $400 a metric ton premium over futures prices.

The two countries are the top cocoa-producing nations in the world.

Traders will have to pay the additional cost, known as the living income differential, as well as the regular country premium, which is usually higher for Ghana due to the better quality of its beans.

The Managing Director of Ghana’s Marketing Company, Joe Forson, told Bloomberg that “the market will definitely buy our cocoa, what the CMC did was just a market sounding especially after the introduction of the LID, we were weighing the market reaction and its dynamics.”

“It will take some time for the market to adjust, besides, we are not under any pressure to sell 2020-21 crop now, that season is about 15 months away,” he added.

This year Ivory Coast and Ghana took a historical step to exert more control over cocoa markets.

The nations this week suspended a ban on sales of the 2020/2021 crop after reaching an agreement over the new pricing mechanism.

Some traders and analysts have expressed skepticism of the plan, saying buyers would probably hold back purchases and turn to supplies from other countries and the London exchange first.