(Adds comments and weekly price moves)
NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) –
World cocoa and coffee prices recovered on Friday from steep falls mid-week amid the tariff woes, but still posted weekly losses as investors continue to fear a global recession.
The U.S. administration said on Wednesday it would pause most higher tariffs for 90 days, leaving them at 10% for all countries except China. The world’s second-largest economy currently faces tariffs of
, and has retaliated with its own 125% duties on U.S. imports.
London cocoa futures traded on the ICE exchange and seen as a global price benchmark settled up 213 pounds, or 3.6%, to 6,207 pounds per ton, but ended the week 3% down.
New York cocoa rose 4.5% to $8,440 a ton, having lost 1% in the week.
“Tariffs are bad not good. The uncertainty alone leads to an economic slowdown. (Investors) will just sit and wait (and) consumers will eat less chocolate and drink less coffee,” said a cocoa and coffee consultant.
Top cocoa producer Ivory Coast said it could take measures to make the bean more expensive if Trump’s plans for a 21% tariff on Ivorian goods goes into effect. Ivory Coast can not set the global cocoa price but it can raise export taxes.
Cocoa investors were already concerned about a downturn in demand thanks to high prices prior to the Trump tariffs.
Barry Callebaut, whose ingredients are used in one out of four chocolate and cocoa products consumed worldwide, on Thursday posted a 4.7% sales volume decline for the first six months of the year to August 31 and forecast a mid-single digit full-year sales volumes drop.
Robusta coffee futures settled up $153, or 3.1%, at $5,049 a ton, but were 2% in the week, while arabica coffee futures rose 3.5% at $3.536 per lb on Friday, ending the week down 2.7%.
BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said it sees downside risk to coffee demand due to U.S. tariffs, but raised its full-year arabica forecast to $3.40 per lb from $2.40 on an expected production falls in top producers Brazil and Vietnam.
Raw sugar settled down 0.12 cent, or 0.7%, at 18.00 cents per lb, posting a weekly loss of 4.4%, while white sugar fell 0.2% at $523.00 a ton. (Reporting by May Angel and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jane Merriman and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
