Coffee and cocoa: prices stay high, cocoa beans at $5,711

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) reported that its composite indicator price, I-CIP, averaged 287.29 US cents per pound in August 2026. That is practically the same as July, when it stood at 287.26 cents. Quotes jumped in the middle of the month on worries about El Niño and tight short-term arabica supply, but the gains faded later. In April 2026, the I-CIP was 266.24 cents per pound, 2.7 percent lower than in March.

Exports are rising as well. The ICO counted 12.23 million bags of coffee shipped in July 2026, up from 11.84 million a year earlier. Over the first ten months of coffee year 2025/26, from October 2025 to July 2026, exports held steady at 118.39 million bags, compared with 118.43 million in the same period last year. Coffee provides income for roughly 12.5 million farming families worldwide. That scale makes every move in the quotes a social issue, not just a market one.

Cocoa: two exchanges, two currencies

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) provides the comparison. Its daily quotes for 24 September 2026 were: London contracts at 4,310.33 pounds per tonne, New York at 5,720.33 dollars per tonne, and the daily ICCO indicator at 5,711.13 dollars per tonne (5,021.80 euros). A day earlier, the figures were 4,252.67 pounds, 5,658.67 dollars, and 5,649.06 dollars per tonne. Levels this high have persisted since supply disruptions in West Africa drove the cocoa market up.

Day-to-day volatility

The swings are visible in ICCO daily quotes. Between 23 and 24 September 2026, New York contracts rose by 61.66 dollars per tonne, London contracts by 57.66 pounds per tonne, and the organization's daily indicator by 62.07 dollars per tonne. For a buyer signing a contract for a full season's supply, such a move within a single session means real costs: every thousand tonnes of cocoa is priced differently in the morning and in the evening. This is also why confectionery makers and coffee roasters hold stocks and hedge on the exchange instead of buying day to day.

What it means for a biscuit and a cup

Cocoa beans and green coffee are raw materials that finished-goods producers cannot control. With cocoa above 5.7 thousand dollars per tonne, chocolate gets more expensive, as do products where cocoa is only an additive: coatings, biscuits, and drinks. With coffee holding near 290 cents per pound, the pressure is felt in cafés and in packaged coffee.

The FAO food price index, meanwhile, covers neither coffee nor cocoa. It tracks cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat, and sugar. So August 2026 looks one way through the FAO's aggregate basket (133.3 points) and another way through the two commodity exchanges where the price of the morning cup and the chocolate bar is settled.