Ivorian cocoa arrivals up 15 percent last year

Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 904,681 tonnes by January 30 since the start of the season in October, up around 15 percent on arrivals a year ago, data from the regulating body BCC obtained by Reuters on Friday showed.
But none of what arrived during the most recent week was registered for export as shippers heeded an export ban called by presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara, exporters said. Arrivals to the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro during the week of January 24 to 30 totalled 25,076 tonnes, up from 22,646 tonnes in the same week of the 2009/2010 season, according to the figures.
Good weather is driving the big main cocoa crop this season. Some 782,055 tonnes of cocoa arrived in the same period a year ago, while the complete 2009-10 season yielded just over 1.2 million tonnes, according to the BCC.
"I think the government figures are less than we actually have. We were already at 900,000 tonnes in January, and there's still 200,000 or so to come by March," said the director of a multinational cocoa exporter in Abidjan. "We could easily see just the main crop hitting 1.1 million tonnes."
Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of the November 28 presidential election, called for a one-month ban on cocoa exports from last week in an attempt to squeeze the finances of his rival, Laurent Gbagbo. The two are locked in a dispute over the election, which Gbabgo has refused to concede, with backing from the military. He retains control of the army, cocoa sector, port and customs.
The BCC figures were in line with others released on Thursday by Gbagbo's council of ministers in a statement in which they forecast production would exceed 1.2 million tonnes this year, in line with what analysts predict. But that statement warned Ouattara's cocoa ban could have "disastrous consequences" on the international market.
"The rest of the harvest is running the huge risk of being compromised if the cocoa ban extends beyond February 23," said an exporter from an Abidjan-based company. "That would be a disaster for all of us.