Ivory Coast Cocoa Purchases Rise 3% in First 6 Months of Season

(Businessweek) – Cocoa purchases in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, climbed 3 percent in the first six months of the 2012-13 season, according to a document from the country’s ministries of finance and agriculture.

Cocoa deliveries to ports from farms amounted to 1,079,309 metric tons from Oct. 1 to March 31, according to the document posted on the ministry of finance’s website. That compares with 1,047,364 tons in the same period a year earlier.

Deliveries accelerated in the first three months of the year after falling 7.5 percent from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Purchases from Jan. 1 to March 31 totaled 430,061 tons, up from 345,237 tons in the same period a year earlier, the document showed.

Bean exports in the first six months of the season climbed 11 percent to 1,078,964 tons, according to the document. Shipments in the first three months of 2013 gained 17 percent to 576,333 tons. Cocoa producers’ revenue climbed 8.5 percent to 782.5 billion CFA francs ($1.5 billion) from Oct. 1 to March 31, from 721.3 billion francs a year earlier, it showed.

Coffee production in the first three months of the year declined 36 percent to 59,396 tons, according to the ministries. Exports in the period fell 10 percent to 26,961 tons in the same period.