Commodities : Thursday, Dec. 4, 1986 : Cocoa Futures Prices Fall

Cocoa futures prices fell Thursday as the International Cocoa Organization apparently was unable to resolve differences for price-support intervention. Cocoa lost $38 a ton on the March contract at the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York.

In some other markets, soybean and grain futures were mostly lower, while livetock and meat were mostly higher.

A dispute among consuming and producing nations over the rules governing the operation of cocoa buffer stocks resulted in an apparent impass at the ICO meeting in London, said Debra Tropp, an analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities.

“They’ll be meeting again Jan. 19,” she said, but the inability to reach an agreement this week “created speculation that implementing the buffer stock might be more problematic than expected.” The impass arises from the inability to agree to the rules that would determine at what price the buffer stock manager would buy cocoa beans as a price-support maneuver.

The buffer operations were to begin Feb. 1, but this looks doubtful, said Tropp.