Cocoa price war in Kavieng

A LITTLE cocoa price war has broken out in Kavieng, but the cocoa farmers are laughing all the way to the bank, even if only to cash the cheques.
The entry into the market by local exporter Tutuman Development Ltd has seen the farmers watching the price rise from the K200-to-K250 price range per 62.5kg bag they were fetching from Rabaul exporters, to between K300 and K313 in Kavieng this week.
The local exporter hauled in about 30 tonnes of dried cocoa beans and filled growers pockets with approximately K134,000 during the past two months.
That amount more than doubled when you considering that Kokopo-based exporters Agmark and Outspan continued to buy cocoa in New Ireland by staying close to the new player’s price in the same period.
Yesterday, the average price posted by the International Cocoa Organisation was US$2159.04 (K5960.54) per tonne in New York, and SDR1378.38 (IMF = K5950.37) in London.
In future trading (March cocoa harvest pre-sold), it was US$2119.67 (K5842.13) per tonne in New York, and UK pounds 1098.00 (K6046.94) per tonne in London
Previously, all of New Ireland’s cocoa and copra (both raw and milled) were being exported out of East New Britain, which meant the growers were not getting the full price for their produce and New Ireland was missing out on export derivation grants from the Government.
For the growers, prices then ranged from K200 to K250 per 62.5kg bag of dried beans.