Ivorian cocoa arrivals down

Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,064,000 tonnes by April 21 since the start of the season in October, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,078,000 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated around 15,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports of Abidjan and San Pedro between April 15 and 21, up from 13,000 tonnes in the same week last year. While arrivals were nearly on par with last season's levels, exporters voiced concern over the poor quality of early beans from the April-to-September mid-crop. "There are big worries for bean quality this mid-crop, because we are already seeing average bean counts between 120 and 130 beans (per 100 grammes)," said the director of an international exporter in Abidjan.