(Bloomberg) -- Cocoa futures tumbled in New York and London, with the market prone to large price swings as fewer and fewer companies can afford rising costs to back their trades.

The most-active contract fell as much as 17% to $8,800 a ton in New York, the biggest intraday drop in data going back to 1960. Futures settled at $8,931 per ton, the lowest in over a month. The market has been volatile, with prices dropping one day and surging the next. Overall, futures have dropped more than 20% from a record high reached April 19 after more than doubling this year.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. has repeatedly raised the amount of money companies need to put down to back their position, sending traders for the exit. Aggregate open interest in New York is near the lowest in over a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

In London, futures fell last week after Ivory Coast moved to avoid a wave of cocoa-export defaults with a plan to compensate shippers for losses caused by a surprise increase in the price paid to farmers.

Increases in margin requirements for trading and a large reduction in the number of outstanding contracts “opens up more space for trend reversals, with fewer players being able to drive more abrupt movements,” said StoneX analyst Leonardo Rossetti. 

Read More: Top Cocoa Grower Seeks to Avoid Export Defaults After Price Hike

Bean supplies may get some minor relief as rains in West African growing areas could provide some benefit for the region’s upcoming mid-crop harvest. While far from solving a severe shortage that pushed markets to a third year of deficits this season, the wetter weather adds to a lack of new bullish events as money managers continue to trim their net-long positions.

“The shortage is not over,” said consultant Paulo Torres, a London-based trading and agricultural consultant. “The elephant in the room is the fact that Ivory Coast and Ghana do not have cocoa,” he added.

Cocoa futures have more than doubled over the past year as bad weather, older trees and crop disease hit West Africa, which accounts for more than half of global supplies. That’s left buyers struggling for supplies, and forced Ivory Coast and Ghana to roll over contracts amounting to around 400,000 tons of cocoa, adding to the supply tightness. 

(Previous version corrected reason for price drop, and size and scope in first deck headline.)

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