Ghana's 2007/2008 cocoa crop has opened strongly in its first week, despite some minor delays involving offloading of truck deliveries at ports and bank payments for purchases, buyers and officials said. They said Licensed Buying Companies (Lbws) had shown keen participation since the October 19 of the new harvest in the world's No 2 cocoa producer.
The state-run Ghana Cocoa Board (Cookbook) has said it hoped to buy at least 600,000 tonnes of cocoa through this year's main crop, the first and biggest segment of the two-cycle crop year.
The smaller light crop is projected to yield 50,000 tonnes. Cocoa purchases declared to Cookbook by private buyers in the whole of the 2006/2007-crop year totalled 614,469 tonnes, sharply down from 740,457 tonnes in 2005/06.
Officials blamed the drop on unfavourable weather. Purchases for the 2007/2008 season had got off to a "satisfying" start, an industry official, which asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
"So far so good. It is doing well and the volumes are as we had anticipated," the official said. He declined to give specific figures, saying official data on the week's purchases was yet to be released. Cookbook inspectors had been visiting the various regions to assess the progress of the season. They reported "a few teething problems".
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