Dedicated to cocoa completely and accurately

Venezuela celebrated the 155Th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. There was an artisanal chocolate exposition in Caracas on Tuesday. Venezuelan President Jose Gregorio Monagas
outlawed slavery on March 24, 1854, that, at the time, affected more than 40,000 people of African origin.

Europe has stock of unsold cocoa piling up. Consumers are turning to cheaper brands with low cocoa content. An article that caught my eye this morning was Reuters article Consumers turn to cheap supermarket brand chocolate by Michael Hogan who quoted Andreas Christiansen, the chairman of Germany's cocoa trade association who stated "Some producers are loosing almost 100% of their exports to Central/Eastern Europe and Russia after their currencies devalued drastically against the euro and dollar," he said. "We are told some Polish and Hungarian chocolate producers are suffering sales falls of 50 percent." Unsold European stock of cocoa products had risen sharply. "There are large volumes of unsold cocoa products in Europe," he said. "The warehouses are full, we estimate that we have unsold inventories of cocoa products, that is mainly cocoa butter and cocoa mass, of about 70,000 tonnes in Europe. Unsold inventories held as a buffer are normally around 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes." - Note- 70,000 MT = 154,322,000 lbs.

Butter ratios in December were 2.66 - It's now ranging just above 2.10. Just to break it down // One container (40,000lbs) @ a Cocoa Market of 2600 = $125,483.08 @ 2.66 ratio minus $99,065.59 @ 2.10 ratio equals a savings of $26,417.49!! Chances of the ratio getting any lower is rare. Cheaper brands mean less butter and more powder. More Powder means more butter in stock. Its no surprise that sales of more expensive chocolates are falling because of the economic slowdown.

Nestle, the world's biggest food group, says they will continue to grow in 2009, even with the poor economic conditions. Last month they predicted a growth of 5% in Organic Sales.

The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Panel on contaminants in the food chain has set a reduced tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for cadmium of 2.5 micrograms per kilogram of body weight (μg/kg bw), based on an analysis of new data. High levels can be found in chocolate but are not a major contributor in foods such as cereals and cereal products, vegetables, nuts and pulses, starchy roots and potatoes, as well as meat and meat products.

ICE Futures U.S. is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. It trades futures and options contracts in raw sugar, arabica coffee, cocoa, frozen concentrated orange juice and cotton, among others. They warned market players late yesterday about attempts to illegally influence the exchange settlement prices of futures or options contracts by using "improper" trading practices.

Former Solomon Islands (East of Papua New Guinea) Central Bank governor Rick Hou said "The country must work with donors to develop new industries if it is to stave off the economic recession and beat annual growth forecasts that are no higher than 1.5 per cent." He identified one of the potential sources of growth could be cocoa.