In July, I posted several comments on the attempt by Anthony Ward of Armajaro to corner the cocoa futures market by purchasing seven percent of the world supply of cocoa beans. Well, it turns out that he lost his bet. Rather than continue to increase, cocoa futures prices are down. Dramatically down, to be specific. When Ward bought his 240,410 tons, he paid about £2,700/ton. As of September 13, the London price of cocoa has dropped to £1,847. His stocks of cocoa have therefore lost about £205 million in value since July.
Cocoa DNA Unravelled
It was only a question of time before it would happen, but on Wednesday, the New York Times (and many other news outlets) announced that two teams of scientists had sequenced the complete DNA chain of the cocoa tree. Most appropriately, the news appeared in the business section, not the science section. The two rival teams, one financed by Mars, the other a collaboration between French government laboratories and the University of Pennsylvania backed by Hershey, were quick to dispel any worries that the DNA sequence would become private property. The information will be freely available. The Mars project can be found at the Cocoa Genome Project website.
Kuapa Kokoo Elects First Woman President
2,600 delegates to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kuapa Kokoo elected Christina Ohene Agyare as new president of the cocoa farmers’ cooperative in Ghana. Ms Agyare is fifty-one and owns an eleven acre cocoa farm in the the Kwabeng Society in the Atiwa District, Eastern Region of the country. She is one of five women elected to the national executive of the cooperative at the AGM. She succeeds PCK Buah and her terms runs until 2014. Previously, she served as treasurer and recorder of her local society.
Ms. Agyare takes over a cooperative of 45,000 farmers that has produced and delivered 28,000 tons of cocoa. The cooperative also owns 45 percent of the fairtrade chocolate maker Divine Chocolate in the UK. For more information, check the story are Divine’s website.
Sophie Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate said in a press release: “Ayekoo! We congratulate Christiana on her election as the first woman President of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union and very much look forward to working closely with her in growing Divine, Kuapa’s chocolate company. We would also like to thank Mr. Buah and the outgoing members of the NEC who have worked diligently for last 4 years, listening to the membership, introducing a new constitution and leading Kuapa through a challenging period., and for Mr Buah’s welcome influence on Divine business.”
The Man Who Just Bought 7 Percent of the World’s Cocoa
Anthony Ward, founder and CEO of Armajaro who just took delivery of all that cocoa, gave an interview in January that give some insight into why he bought so much cocoa. He is clearly betting on future shortages and hopes to cash in on the likely profits.
On the other hand there are voices that claim Anthony Ward ended holding the bag (or better over 3 million bags of cocoa) after a deal went wrong. Globe and Mail author Paul Waldie claims that Ward ended up on the “wrong side of a private hedging arrangement with Swiss chocolate-maker Barry Callebaut AG.” On Monday, news surfaced that almost half of the cocoa in question had been passed on to Barry Callebaut. Since then, the London price of cocoa has dropped by almost 6 percent.
‘Choc Finger’ Just Bought 7% of Global Cocoa Supplies
So it was Armajaro and not BNP Paris Bas. The man behind the huge cocoa corner is Anthony Ward. Check out the story in the Daily Mail.
In 2002 he made £40 million in two month by simply hoarding cocoa. I wonder how much he will make this time.
