European cocoa grinding surprises positively in Q3

The European Cocoa Association (ECA) has reported a 2% year-on-year increase in European cocoa grinding to 334,000 tons in the third quarter of 2015. This is the highest figure since the first quarter of 2014. In surveys, respondents had tended to assume that grinding rates would stagnate. 

According to the Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI), grinding in Germany even surged by 16% year-on-year to 101,000 tons. In other words, German grinding accounted for nearly a third of the total volume ground by the 15 EU countries and Switzerland which make up the ECA's data. 

The grinding figures for North America will be published later today. Malaysia had already reported that grinding had increased quarter-on-quarter but that it had decreased by 20% year-on-year to just shy of 50,000 tons, notes Commerzbank. 

Grinding has been on the decline for years in Malaysia, which produces only little cocoa itself. Its status as the largest Asian cocoa grinder has been taken over by Indonesia, which is the largest Asian cocoa producer and has supplied Malaysia with cocoa beans so far. What is more, the high local cocoa bean prices are pressuring grinding margins. 

At the same time, grinding of cocoa beans is increasingly shifting to large producer countries, especially Ivory Coast. After investing heavily in its grinding capacities, Ivory Coast superseded the Netherlands as the world's largest grinding country in the 2014/15 crop year, according to the ICCO.