Alassan Quattara: excluded from elections

"Even with all the instability, it hasn't really affected the flow [of beans]," one analyst said.

"Farmers... want the income. So it's in their interest to keep harvesting cocoa and selling it," another said.

And while fresh protests by supporters of former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, who was excluded from Sunday's elections, has seen blockades erected in a key port, cocoa buyers on Thursday remained relaxed.

Cocoa horde

About one half of Ivory Coast's cocoa is shipped through the blockaded port, San Pedro.

No one is hurting for lack of cocoa

Amy Prendergast, commodities analyst

But chocolate makers have sufficient reserves to survive a lengthy cut in cocoa supplies.

European chocolate manufacturers are believed to have about six months' cocoa supply in their warehouses.

In the US, Hersheys, which on Monday said low cocoa prices helped it record a 23% rise in third quarter earnings, is reckoned to have stored sufficient beans to cover up to two years of production.

Amy Prendergast, analyst at Refco, said: "No one is hurting for lack of cocoa."

High stocks

Cocoa stocks, while 17% below peaks reached at the end of May, are high by historical standards, analysts say.

Cocoa beans: in plentiful supply

Warehouses were holding 4.237 million bags of cocoa last Thursday, compared to 3.354 million bags at the end of October 1999, Prudential Securities said.

The levels of stockpiling have left demand for the beans weak, while technical sales and the release of cocoa by Ghana have further hit the market.

In London prices on Wednesday in the benchmark December futures contract slumped to �601 a tonne, the lowest level for three weeks.