Cocoa futures prices kept rising non-stop for the sixth straight session on Friday and hit their highest in more than 46 years at the close of trading. Today, on February 5, March cocoa bean futures rose 1% to $5006 a ton in trading on the U.S. floor of ICE on Friday. Basically, the cocoa prices trend continues its exponential rise, as NY cocoa reached a new peak in the front-month-futures trading the highest in 46 years, the highest at market close since July 20, 1977, according to Dow Jones data, while London cocoa also achieved an unprecedented high. In MoM terms, cocoa futures rose 15% in January alone, demonstrating the most significant increase since November 2020.

According to numerous business media sources, the strength of the Harmattan winds during this year's season in West Africa is causing the cocoa fields to dry out fast, leading to growing concerns about potential harm to the mid-crop in the Ivory Coast. The cocoa bean harvest is lagging behind previous crop year levels. Exporters' estimates show that cocoa bean shipments to ports in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the world's largest producer of the commodity, were 35% lower between the start of the crop year in October and the end of January compared with the same period a year earlier.

These worries are among the greatest drivers of cocoa prices’ uptrend, as there is apprehension that cocoa yields in the region may be significantly diminished, further reducing global cocoa production. There are growing expectations that production will fall below demand.

This means that the cocoa bean market will remain deficient for the third consecutive year.