North American cocoa grind sees first drop in two years

North American cocoa grindings for the fourth quarter of 2014 fell 1.95% year-on-year to 122,886 tonnes, according to data from the National Confectioners Association on Thursday. That brought full-year grindings to 521,657 tonnes, up 2.4% from 2013 and the highest since the data pool was expanded to include Mexico and Canada in 2009.

 

The drop is smaller than in Europe, the world's biggest cocoa processing region, as it continues to struggle through a financial crisis. Earlier in the day, Europe's fourth-quarter cocoa grind was reported down 7.4% from the same period last year to 323,061 tonnes, its lowest fourth-quarter grind since 2005.