Main crop cocoa production in the west and southwest of the world's top grower is off to a strong start, with good output expected for most of the October-March season, farmers and buyers said on Thursday.
While farmers say they are harvesting regularly and are upbeat about prospects for the crop - the larger of two annual six-month growing cycles - exporters say they have received much less cocoa than usual at the ports by this time of year.
Deliveries have been hit by a three-day farmers' strike last week which cut off the flow of beans from the bush. Some farmers are still refusing to sell while the Anaproci growers' association lobbies the government for higher prices. "I'm pleased with the way my farm is producing," said Jerome Bohui Tape who farms a four hectare plantation in Bougedia, 30 km (18 miles) south of key cocoa town Daloa. His family helped him split open harvested pods and extract the beans as he spoke.
"There's plenty of cocoa this year again and I'm sure I'll get a good few tonnes this main crop," he said, adding that initial worries about lack of rainfall in June and July eased when belated rains fell in the region in August and September. Thomas Diby who has a slightly smaller three hectare farm near Soubre in the south-western part of Ivory Coast's cocoa heartland said production was also looking good there so far. "We can say the harvest has started well. The cocoa is coming and it's going to continue until December if the small pods on the trees ripen normally," he said.
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