Disease, delays, a farmers' strike and management reshuffles - the new cocoa season in Ivory Coast has had its share of disruption, and the amount of beans ready for export is well down on this time last year.
Still, behind those immediate concerns are more fundamental difficulties in the world's No 1 grower that higher prices and revamped administrative bodies may not be able to quickly solve, farmers and analysts said on Friday. Unusually wet weather in the weeks leading up to the October start of the 2008/09 marketing season is one reason why this year's harvest may be lower than last year's.
August and September in the west African country are normally sunny months, but this year saw heavy rainfall, which not only encouraged the spread of disease but also retarded pod development. "There was lots of rain in August and September, and very little sunshine, which slowed the maturing of the pods," said Albert Konan, analyst for a growing co-operative. Pods need an average of four hours of sun per day to mature, he said. Aside from the weather, the condition of the cocoa plants themselves is a factor in low yields, Konan said.
According to the most recent figures from exporters, 63,000 tonnes of cocoa are at ports ready for shipment, compared with almost 170,000 tonnes at this time last year. Disease and an ongoing farmers' blockade on deliveries have played a part, but there are fewer beans in the bush. "This year, the trees haven't produced much. It's true that we have had black pod disease, but I think the reduction is a result of the old age of the trees," said Innocent Zamble, a farmer in the western region of Meagui."
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