NEW YORK/LONDON: Cocoa futures on ICE hit fresh 6-1/2-year highs on Friday as investors focused on concerns over tight supply in West Africa, while robusta coffee futures consolidated after hitting 12 year highs on Thursday.

July New York cocoa settled down $17, or 0.6%, to $2,986 a tonne, having hit 6-1/2 year high of $3,049.

Port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast have been trailing last season’s pace and a global deficit is widely expected in the current 2022/23 season, even if demand is seen slipping about 1%, research firm BMI said in a note.

July London cocoa rose 12 pounds, or 0.5%, to 2,268 pounds per tonne, having hit a 6-1/2 year high of 2,300.

July robusta coffee settled up $39, or 1.6%, at $2,432 a tonne, having settled 3.5% down on Thursday after touching a 12-year peak of $2,500.Robusta has been driven higher by depleted supplies in Vietnam and Indonesia, the world’s biggest and third-largest robusta producers respectively.