Chocolate Binge Topping $100 Billion Boosts Cocoa: Commodities

Shrinking cocoa harvests in West Africa, the largest producing region, are diminishing a glut of beans just as sales of chocolate confectionery exceed $100 billion for the first time ever.

Global supply will decline 7.7 percent in the year to September, shrinking the surplus to 32,000 metric tons, from 434,000 tons a year earlier, according to Marex Spectron Group Ltd., which trades the beans in New York and London. Grindings, a measure of demand, will gain 1.9 percent to a record 3.9 million tons, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg. Prices will rise 12 percent to $2,700 a ton in three months, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.