Cash Crunch Stalls Cocoa and Coffee Trading Around the World

An unparalleled rally in cocoa and coffee futures is leaving traders so cash-strapped that many no longer have enough money to ship the two commodities around the world.

Rising prices forced traders to deposit large sums of money with the New York exchange to back their futures positions. With so much cash locked up, it’s become much harder to finance cargoes to move beans from where they are produced to where they are consumed.