Cocoa May Decline ....

... on Outlook for Ivory Coast and Ghana Crops
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Cocoa may fall in London, resuming a decline that has seen prices drop for three of the past four weeks, on speculation that production in West Africa in the coming season will exceed the previous harvest.

The drop, which sent cocoa futures to a nine-month low last month, followed higher crop estimates by the International Cocoa Organization for Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's two biggest growers of the beans used in chocolate. Higher output from the harvest that starts next month may end a two-year supply deficit.

``I would say you're talking about a surplus'' in the new season, said Sholom Sanik, a broker at Toronto-based Friedberg Mercantile Group, which invests in cocoa. ``You can probably expect production to be a little higher because of good weather conditions.''

Cocoa futures for December delivery fell 1 pound, or 0.1 percent, to 844 pounds ($1,582) a metric ton at 9:58 a.m. in London on Euronext.liffe. The contract has dropped 6.4 percent since Aug. 10.