Ghana’s 2014-15 Cocoa Production Seen Meeting Government Target

(Bloomberg) -Ghana’s cocoa harvest, the world’s second-biggest, will meet the government’s forecast for crops close to or at a record amid favorable rains, according to the meteorological agency.

The West African nation is “confident” the 2014-15 harvest will exceed 1 million metric tons, Stephen Opuni, chief executive officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, said last week, as the season began. A record 1.025 million tons were produced in the 2010-11 season.

“The forecast can be achieved,” Charles York, principal meteorologist at the Ghana Meteorological Agency in Accra, said in an interview yesterday.

The nation raised farm gate prices 63 percent to 5,520 cedis ($1,714) a ton this month to curb smuggling to neighboring Ivory Coast, the largest producer,

“The producer price is good and the weather will also be good for the cocoa crop,” York said. “Intermittent rains are expected from now until November in the forest regions before the dry season sets in by December.”

Beans will get enough rain and sunshine to develop properly, York said.