Above-average rainfall in most of Ivory Coast's cocoa regions last week produced a wave of flowers and cherelles on trees that point to a healthy mid-crop, farmers said on Monday. Ivory Coast's April-to-September cocoa mid-crop is closely watched by markets. The government of the world's top producer expects the harvest to yield about 500,000 tonnes of beans for the harvest, and around 2 million tonnes of beans in total for the 2017/18 season, in line with last year's record.
"Compared to last year, the quality is good and there is a lot of cocoa on the trees for the mid-crop," said Vincent Yavo, who farms in the southern region of Agboville. "If it continues to rain in May, we will have fewer rejections in sales this year," he said. In the centre-western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers said the good mix of moisture and sun would help pods to ripen over the next two months.
"The rains that fall now will help the mid-crop be long with big beans," said Koffi Kouame, who farms in the region of Soubre where 25 millimeters of rain fell last week, 7 mm above average, according to Reuters data. In Divo, rainfall hit 25.5 mm last week, 3 mm above average. Farmers said growing conditions were good in Daloa, which produces a quarter of national output, and received 24.2 mm of rainfall last week, 3.8 mm above average.
In the western region of Man including Duekoue, farmers were happy with the weather. Data showed that rainfall was at 25.7 mm last week, 5.3 mm above average. The eastern region of Abengourou, including Aboisso, received 9.2 mm, about 11.4 mm below average.
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