Price ratios for cocoa butter firmed this week as scarce supplies available for nearby demand buoyed prices, European traders said on Friday. "There's good interest for butter, that's clear, if you find a truckload because of a factory running better than expected it's sold within five seconds," said a European trader. January/March 2013 delivery butter was at 1.98 times London bean contracts against 1.95 over last week.

Meanwhile, a slow start to Ivory Coast and Ghana's main crop cocoa flow kept debate going over the size of the 2012/13 crops in the world's top producers.

Copyright Reuters, 2012