Ivory Coast Cocoa-Growing Areas Rainfall Seen Easing

August 28th, 2014

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Category: Cocoa

(Businessweek) – Cocoa-growing areas in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, saw easing rainfall last week as farmers said pods in the trees are growing well about a month from the start of the main harvest.

Rainfall averaged 6.4 millimeters (0.25 inch) a day in 15 cocoa-growing areas in the Aug. 18-24 period, according to CICO Services, an agronomy intelligence agency based in Abidjan, the commercial capital. The average temperature for the 15 areas was 29 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit), data showed. During the rainy season, precipitation averaged 13.8 millimeters daily in the same locations June 2-6; 9 millimeters in the June 10-14 period; and 12 millimeters in the week ended July 6.

“It rains in the morning but it’s light and the sun usually shows up in the afternoon,” Robert Koffi, who farms a 12-hectare (29.7 acres) cocoa plantation near the western town of Duekoue, said by phone Aug. 25. “We don’t have abundant rainfall as we had in the past two months.”

The country’s western regions got more rain than other cocoa areas last week, according to the data. The towns of Gagnoa and Duekoue averaged 8.9 millimeters and 9.9 millimeters a day respectively. The southwestern town of San Pedro got 5.4 millimeters while the eastern town of Abengourou got 5.1 millimeters.

Ivory Coast’s southern forest areas, where most of the cocoa is grown, entered the short dry season in mid-July. This season, which is characterized by cooler temperatures, typically lasts until mid-September.

“We have started to pick up some pods in the trees and stock them up,” Eponon Ebah, head of a cocoa cooperative in Abengourou, said by phone Aug. 25. “The other pods on the trees are growing well.”

Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast reap a main crop from October to March, while a smaller harvest, called the mid-crop, is produced from April to the end of September.

Ivory Coast’s cocoa production will be a record 1.7 million metric tons for the 2013-14 season, the London-based International Cocoa Organization estimated in June. The prior year’s output was 1.4 million tons.

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