Light rains last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions will improve output and quality by helping cocoa trees to better weather the dry season that is just beginning, farmers said on Monday. Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, has a dry season lasting from Mid-November to March, when rain is relatively scarce.
"There's enough rain, which is really good for the dry season. The pods are nice and fat this month," said Lazare Ake, who farms in the outskirts of Soubre. Data collected by Reuters showed rainfall in Soubre region, which includes Sassandra and San Pedro, last week was at 35.6 mm, about 18 mm above average. In the centre-western region of Daloa, producing the quarter of Ivory Coast's national output, farmers they were happy with the rain, as it would improve the size of beans from January.
"That's going make the beans big," said Albert N'Zue, who farms in the outskirts of Daloa. "And if we have more rains in December, there will be a lot of beans in the pods." Rainfall in Daloa was at 4.2 mm last week, 3.4 mm below the average, data collected by Reuters showed. Rainfall in Divo was at 12.9 millimetres, 2.2 mm below average.
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