Ivory Coast's cocoa production during the forthcoming 2011-12 main crop will fall short of last year's record, the head of industry regulator BCC told Reuters on Monday. "We have not yet finished our work to come up with a specific projection, but we are expecting much less this year," Eric Koffi told Reuters by telephone.
Ivory Coast cocoa arrivals topped 1 million tonnes during the 2010-11 main crop, which ran from October to March, and has since climbed to more than 1.4 million, according to exporter estimates. Koffi said 1,352,000 tonnes of raw beans and cocoa products had been exported from the West African state by August 28 since the start of the season in October.
He added that exporters had nearly completely cleared a backlog of cocoa at the nation's ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, which had piled up in warehouses during a civil war that closed the ports earlier this year. "There's practically nothing left," he said. Ideal weather conditions have triggered record cocoa harvests across West Africa this season. Ivory Coast port arrivals hit 1,394,000 tonnes by August 28, from 1,139,669 tonnes during the same period last year, according to BCC figures.
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