Farm-gate cocoa prices in Ivory Coast's main growing regions were mixed in the week of March 17 as main crop supplies dried up and the small size of available beans weighed on prices, buyers and farmers said on Thursday.
A buyer for a European exporter complained about the small size of beans and said he had stopped purchases until mid-April, when he expected bigger beans to start coming in from the bush.
Bean size is key to quality and major exporters often refuse small beans as they do not contain enough butter. "I have stopped buying because the beans coming in from the bush are very small, and I have no (sales) contract for this class of bean," the buyer said. "I expect to start buying again towards mid-April. I think then there will be slightly bigger beans than we're seeing at the moment, because it has been raining for nearly a month now," he said.
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