BY GODWIN ORITS

THE recent protest by Nigerians over the removal of subsidy from Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, may have affected the supply of cocoa to Europe as the protest has halted shipment from farms to the ports.

A Nigerian industry group said shipments from farms for processing have halted adding that dry weather may also curb supplies from Ivory Coast.

Demand in Europe may have climbed in the fourth quarter to the highest since at least 1999, according to the median of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

“The strike in Nigeria may limit cocoa supplies,” Carsten Fristch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an e-mail.

“Weather conditions in Ivory Coast became less favourable of late, which may cause lower production volumes.”
Cocoa for March delivery rose 7.5 percent to close at $2,333 a metric tonnes. In two days, the price soared 15 percent, the most since January 17, 2001.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest container-ship owner, closed its office in Nigeria, last week because of the strike, Anders Boenaes, a vice president of Africa services, said in an e-mail. All shipments are at a “standstill.”

Government offices that grade beans were closed, Robo Adhuze, a spokesman at the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said.
“Without grading, the beans cannot be certified and bagged for export,” Adhuze said in a telephone interview from Akure.

Nigeria’s output this season will be about 230,000 tonness, or almost six percent of global production, according to Marex Spectron Group Ltd. in London.

Last year, futures fell 31 percent, the most since 1999, amid ample supplies from West Africa. Global production was 341,000 tonnes higher than consumption in the season that ended in September, according to the International Cocoa Organization.