Cocoa Futures Fall on Revised Industry Forecasts

Cocoa futures fell Thursday as an industry group revised its forecasts and projected a larger-than-expected oversupply of cocoa beans.

Cocoa for July delivery lost 1.2% to settle at $2,024 a ton at the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.

A day earlier, the International Cocoa Organization released its revised forecasts of world production, grindings and stocks of cocoa beans for the current 2016-17 year. Production was revised up to 4.692 million metric tons, while demand was slightly raised to 4.263 million tons, leaving the world with a larger surplus of 382,000 tons, up from the ICCO's previous estimate of 264,000 tons.

That confirmed estimates brought forward by other analysts in recent days. Last week, Rabobank said it expected a 330,000 ton surplus for cocoa for 2016-17 and a 150,000 ton surplus for 2017-18.

Rabobank's forecast for the 2016-17 season calls for a significantly larger surplus than other recent forecasts.

Commerzbank also said in a note that a good mixture of sun and rain over the next few months could ensure that crop volume is exceeded in Ivory Coast.

In other markets, raw sugar for July lost 4.3% to close at 14.23 cents a pound, arabica coffee for July was down 1.3% at $1.277 a pound, frozen concentrated orange juice for July was down 1.2% to end at $1.319 a pound, and July cotton rose 0.8% to settle at 77.63 cents a pound.

(Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2017 16:33 ET (20:33 GMT)