The National Confectioners Association reported a significant decrease in cocoa crushing in North America, with a negative result of 8.13% in Q1 2023 compared to Q4 2021. The processed volumes dropped to 107,130 tons from 116,614 tons, which may impact the expectations for an increase in stock market parameters in the future. This unexpected result, which was below the anticipated positive or unchanged outcome, highlights a challenging start to the year for the cocoa industry in North America.