US benchmark cocoa futures ended up 1.7 percent on Tuesday, with a late round of fund buying helping the market recover from a three-month low hit earlier in the session, traders said.
"It looked like fund buying most of the day. It was a bit of a reversal when we got above unchanged and above yesterday's high," a trader said, adding that "it was all pretty much technical."
The New York Board of Trade's active cocoa contract for May delivery rose $24, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $1,461 a tonne, having dealt from a $1,425 to $1,470.
The bottom trade was the weakest for the contract since November 30.
July cocoa likewise climbed $24 to settle at $1,483 a tonne, while back-month positions advanced $24 to $25. Meanwhile, cocoa exports from top grower Ivory Coast between October 1 and February 21 were less than 750,000 tonnes, weaker than the same period a year ago. Also, exports were well below the 900,000-925,000 tonnes of cocoa which exporters said arrived at ports during the same period of this season's October-March main crop.
With the bulk of Ivory Coast's main crop already hedged in the market, participants are focusing on the forthcoming April-September mid crop from the West African country which produces nearly 40 percent of the world's cocoa.
"Some analysts are talking about 300,000 tonnes.
This may be bit of a stretch, but in the absence of any surprises we should see a healthy mid-crop," Sholom Sanik, an analyst at Friedberg Mercantile Group in Toronto, said in a research report.
"Still, even an optimally sized mid-crop will leave total production at about last year's output level," he said.
Last week, London-based cocoa merchant ED&F Man pegged Ivory Coast's 2005/06 harvest at 1.195 million tonnes, down from the previous year's 1.273 million.
The NYBOT cocoa futures trading volume fetched an estimated 11,702 lots, said a trader. That compared with the 10,029 lots officially tallied the previous session.
In London, the Liffe's front month March cocoa contract rose 1.2 percent to end at 862 pounds a tonne.