Cocoa futures have traded in New York since 1925, first on the New York Cocoa Exchange (later part of the Coffee, Cocoa and Sugar Exchange), then on the New York Board of Trade and now on ICE Futures U.S. Options on cocoa futures were introduced in 1986. Futures and options on futures are used by both the domestic and global cocoa and confectionery industries to price and hedge transactions. The ICE Futures U.S. Cocoa contract is the benchmark for world cocoa prices. The contract’s depth, liquidity and volatility, along with its diversifying properties vis-à-vis other commonly traded futures, have made it a preferred instrument among commodity trading advisors and hedge funds.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF COCOACocoa was part of what has been called the Columbian Exchange, the transfer of various foodstuffs between the Old and New Worlds following Columbus’s voyages. The Maya, Olmec, Toltec and Aztec
peoples of Mexico and Central America used the beans found in the fleshy pods of the Theobroma cacao, or “Fruit of the Gods” tree, as both a currency and as the base for a bitter drink. The drink contained the bitter cocoa beans and red chili peppers. (It was an acquired taste.) Cocoa arrived in Europe with the Spanish, and then was transplanted to the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and later into various European colonies in the Caribbean. The crop was introduced to present-day Ghana in 1879 and the Ivory Coast in 1905, and West Africa today is its principal source of production.
Cocoa remained a drink until the mid-19th century, when a Dutch chemist developed a process for extracting cocoa butter from roasted beans. The development of mass-produced chocolate candy followed in England in 1847. Milk chocolate candy was developed in Switzerland in 1879.
COCOA AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Cocoa is a critical export, especially for West African nations such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The crop’s importance to the eight countries that supply the world is sufficient to keep cocoa a central topic for global agricultural trade forums. Almost no cocoa is grown in or exported from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and these countries dominate the import picture. Unlike other soft commodities such as sugar, cotton and frozen concentrated orange juice, the issue of subsidization of cocoa production and exports is absent from international trade forums. This makes the global cocoa trade and the stabilization of global cocoa prices one of the most enduring issues in international economics.
Cocoa is a critical export, especially for West African nations such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The crop’s importance to the eight countries that supply the world is sufficient to keep cocoa a central topic for global agricultural trade forums. Almost no cocoa is grown in or exported from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and these countries dominate the import picture. Unlike other soft commodities such as sugar, cotton and frozen concentrated orange juice, the issue of subsidization of cocoa production and exports is absent from international trade forums. This makes the global cocoa trade and the stabilization of global cocoa prices one of the most enduring issues in international economics.
A United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) analysis of cocoa production and consumption is shown below. The income and wealth disparities between cocoa importing nations and exporting nations are substantial.
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