Ivory Coast produced a record cocoa harvest of more than 1.5 million tonnes in 2003/04 if an estimated 150,000 tonnes of cocoa smuggled abroad is taken into account, sources at the BCC marketing body said on Tuesday. The Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) did not give forecasts for the current season, which started on October 1, but one exporter in the world's top cocoa producer said main crop estimates from pod counters were similar to what they were at this stage last year.
He also said prospects for the mid-crop were good.
Official figures from the BCC showed total cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast reached 1,389,878 tonnes during the 2003/04 (October-September) season, compared with 1,376,222 tonnes in 2002/03.
BCC sources said an estimated 150,000 tonnes of cocoa on top of the arrival figures had been smuggled abroad, mainly to neighbouring Ghana, making the 2003/04 crop a record one.
"This production rise is a record for us if we include the volume of smuggled cocoa," a BCC official who declined to be named told Reuters.
The previous production record was 1.4 million tonnes in 1999/2000.
The BCC official said high farmgate prices during the 2002/03 season, when cocoa futures in London and New York soared on the back of Ivory Coast's civil war, had allowed farmers in the West African country to take better care of their fields the following year.
At the same time, the BCC says some Ivorian farmers smuggled their beans across the border to Ghana, where farmgate prices were higher than in Ivory Coast throughout the past season.
"We haven't decided on an official figure for smuggling but it is thought to be around 150,000 tonnes, mainly going to Ghana," said another BCC source.
Ghana, the world's second biggest cocoa grower, also had a record harvest of 736,000 tonnes in 2003/04, although Ghanaian authorities say the output rise was due more to crop treatement programmes boosting yields than to smuggling from Ivory Coast.
ENCOURAGING INDICATIONS FOR CURRENT SEASON; Estimates from major exporters since the beginning of the 2004/05 season have pointed to a slowdown in cocoa arrivals in the current season, although over the past two years deliveries have tended to pick up from January.
The Abidjan-based managing director of a European exporter said estimates from pod counters for the 2004/05 main crop (October-March) ranged between 1,020,000 and 1,070,000 tonnes compared with a forecast of some 1,060,000 tonnes at the end of January 2004.
The exporter also said favourable weather suggested the mid-crop (April-September) would also be good.
"The forecasts for the mid-crop are encouraging. There was good rainfall in October and November and the trees are not too heavily loaded with pods.
"They will have enough energy to produce a good harvest during the mid-crop. The current level of sunshine is perfect for a good harvest," he said.
Ivory Coast has been mired in instability since a civil war erupted after a failed coup in September 2002. That, however, has not affected cocoa production, despite initial exporter concerns.
The big 2003/04 crop follows a near-record harvest of 1.36 million tonnes in 2002/03.
Comments
Comments are closed.