Cocoa purchases declared by buyers to Ghana's Cocobod for the first week of the 2008/09 crop were 23,217.69 tonnes, down from 122,000 tonnes in the first week of the previous season, an industry source said on Friday.
Ghana, the world's second biggest cocoa grower, opened the 2008/09 main crop season on September 12, several weeks earlier than normal, and raised its fixed farm gate price by one third in an effort to stem smuggling into neighbouring Ivory Coast.
There were just eight days between the end of the light crop marketing season and the start of the main crop, instead of the usual gap of several weeks during which farmers start harvesting, fermenting and drying their beans ready for the new season. Last year's main crop season didn't begin until October 19, by which point more main crop beans were available.
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