Halfway through October, Q3 grind results are hitting the cocoa market. To an extent, we are seeing a continuation of the previous quarter’s trend that saw rapid expansion of processing across Asia and a slowdown for Western Europe and America.

Preceding the regional reports, Malaysian Q3 grind was up nearly 50 percent compared to Q3 2018, reaching 91,197 MT, surpassing all quarterly volumes from the past decade. To put this in perspective, Malaysia ground far more cocoa beans in a single quarter than they ever grew in an entire season. Obviously, this brisk grind is being fueled by massive imports of beans to run capacity.

For Europe, Q3 grind was down 0.1 percent YOY. North American Q3 grind was down more than 7 percent YOY. The strong Malaysian number matches an equally strong result for Asia overall. Per CAA, Asian Q3 grind was 225,356 MT, up nearly 15 percent YOY and a new record for quarterly grind for the region.

Cocoa quarterly regional grind growth & one-year moving average


Source: ECA, CAA, NCA, McKeany-Flavell
Posted by: Information Services
Our Information Services team assists our clients with understanding commodity and ingredient market dynamics. Using our extensive database of intelligence, we also produce regular commodity and commercial market publications covering supply and demand fundamentals, news alerts on events that shape the markets, and resource guides to give you a complete picture of the industries we monitor.