Cocoa Continues Falling Amid Supply Concerns

Cocoa prices fell for the fourth straight session Tuesday, with some traders concerned that production from West Africa will keep the market well supplied.

Cocoa for March delivery fell 3.5% to $1,932 a ton on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, its lowest close since September.

Analysts have said recently that production declines in West Africa, the world's largest growing region, are rumored to be smaller than expected this growing season, meaning there could be plenty of cocoa available to the market.

"We've just seen a continuation of that selling pressure that we've seen throughout the past week," said Geordie Wilkes, a research analyst at Sucden Financial Research.

Weather consultants think the crops in West Africa are mostly in good condition, Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in a note.

Traders will be monitoring weather reports moving forward, as weather-related supply disruptions could crimp demand support prices, some analysts have said.

In other markets, arabica coffee for March declined 0.9% to $1.274 a pound. March raw sugar shed 1.1% to 14.90 cents a pound, January frozen concentrated orange juice was up 0.2% at $1.621 a pound and March cotton fell 0.1% to 72.51 cents a pound.

--Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 05, 2017 14:58 ET (19:58 GMT)