Bloomberg -Cocoa advanced for a 12th day in London, the longest winning streak since at least 1989, as chocolate makers locked in supplies to hedge against further gains. White sugar and robusta coffee also gained.
Cocoa, which reached its highest since 2003 this week, is the best performer among the 26 raw materials in the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index this year. The surge is prompting manufacturers to hedge against further increases and higher production costs by buying futures contracts.
The gains “are once again fuelled by fund buying,” Stephanie Garner, a cocoa trader with (Sucden) U.K. Ltd. in London, wrote in a report today. “Every time further value is added industry buyers” are “having to enter the market” because they are insufficiently hedged, she said.