Perception might be that lovers everywhere have always enjoyed the confection of affection, chocolate. However, it has taken some time for many Asian countries to adopt the taste, but it seems now they have fallen in love. The Singapore-based Cocoa Association of Asia said that in the fourth quarter of 2013 demand rose 10% from Asia including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Further, for Valentine’s Day in India, gold jewelry demand has dropped between 5-10% while confectioners estimate chocolate demand is up about 20%.
Maybe Ghana got it right, when in 2007, the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism re-branded Valentine’s Day, which falls on February 14, as National Chocolate Day. As you can see in the chart below, the S&P GSCI Cocoa gained 83.4% since Feb 2007.
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices and/or its affiliates. Data from Jan 1998 to Feb 2014. Past performance is not an indication of future results. This chart reflects hypothetical historical performance. Please see the Performance Disclosure at the end of this document for more information regarding the inherent limitations associated with backtested performance.
The growing demand has driven cocoa to be one of the best performing commodities in the S&P GSCI in 2014, despite abundant arrivals from West Africa. The S&P GSCI Cocoa has gained 8.4% YTD, only behind coffee and natural gas in the index.