Cocoa prices in East Sepik Province have reached an unprecedented level in the history of Cocoa prices in PNG and across the world.
Cocoa Board of PNG, popular exporters as well as long time farmers confirmed the current surge in cocoa market price as something they had never seen in decades.
A bag of dry cocoa beans in Wewak, East Sepik Province is currently selling at an average price of K1500, three times more than the normal price of a cocoa bag then selling at K450-K480.
One of East Sepik leading farmer and an instrumental figure of Cocoa in the Province Chris Bais said in a month cocoa prices have emerged almost on a daily basis. “The entire region of East Sepik is experiencing a higher market price of cocoa at the moment.
We’ve got about 5 or six exporters so the competition is high and the entire region is experiencing a high price. “That is something unprecedented in the history of cocoa in this country.
“We have never gone past that limit in the history of cocoa,” Mr Bais said. The current high prices are attributed to, among others, adverse weather conditions in the major producing region in West Africa (Ivory Coast), aging cocoa trees, and disease outbreaks in various cocoa growing regions that caused concerns of supply deficits on the world markets.
Current market sentiments are that the high prices are likely to remain until new African crop comes to the market in late 2024.
PNG Cocoa Board Chief Executive Officer, Jesse Anjen said this is good news for cocoa farmers around the country, it means that they get unusually high prices for their produce, at going prices today its about 4 times the normal average prices.
“PNG produces on average about 1 per cent of total world cocoa production and ranked in the top 10 producers.
Our strength lies in the quality of cocoa we produce which is rated by the ICCO at 80 per cent-90 per cent fine flavor cocoa. PNG farmers also use minimal or no fertilizers therefore our cocoa is also mostly organic cocoa,” Mr Anjen said.
Bloomberg market report also indicated that world market prices for Cocoa are up about 60 per cent this month alone and have more than doubled already this year. The rally has sent prices toward $10,000 a level that seemed unthinkable only a few months ago and even made cocoa more expensive than bellwether industrial metal copper.
