LONDON: Cocoa prices slipped on Tuesday on signs of easing demand for the chocolate ingredient, and amid hopes that output in top producer Ivory Coast will improve next season.

COCOA: September London cocoa fell 7.7% to 6,541 pounds per metric ton at 1524 GMT. It had risen 3.1% on Monday.

Ivory Coast’s cocoa grind, a measure of demand, fell 25.9% year-on-year in June to 45,172 metric tons, data from exporters association GEPEX showed.

Second-quarter grind data due from North America and Asia in the next few days will provide a further indication on the extent to which high prices have curtailed demand.

Dealers meanwhile noted news that Ivory Coast’s October-to-March main cocoa crop is expected to start early in most of the country’s growing regions, helped by recent drier weather.

Farmers say the soil is still moist enough to allow cocoa trees to grow and that they are confident yields in the first half of next season’s main crop, from October to December, will improve.

Underpinning prices, however, cocoa production in No. 2 grower Ghana reached 429,323 metric tons - or less than 55% of the average seasonal output - as harvesting neared completion at the end of June.

September New York cocoa fell 7.5% to $7,955 a ton. It had risen 3.3% on Monday.