Weather aids most of Ivory Coast's cocoa crop

Rainfall mixed with sun across most of Ivory Coast's cocoa regions last week promised an abundant main crop, though excess humidity damaged pods and weighed on prospects in some parts of the country, farmers said on Monday. The 2014/15 main crop in the world's top cocoa grower started at the beginning of October, with the government raising the guaranteed farmgate price to 850 CFA francs ($1.66) per kg from 750 CFA francs the previous season.
Ivory Coast harvested a record 1,740,842 tonnes of beans in the 2013/14 season, which ended last month. In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, an analyst reported 19mm of rain compared with 11mm the previous week. "Flowers are still blooming and, with all this sunshine, the pods are fattening on the trees," said Salam Kone, who farms on the outskirts of the regional capital Soubre, close to the border with Liberia.
"The number of pods that are almost mature on the trees has increased a lot. The harvest will rise during November and peak in December," Kone said. "This year, we'll have a lot of cacao, just like last season, because there are lots of flowers and pods on the trees." In the coastal region of San Pedro, farmers said a second consecutive week of sunny spells was boosting output.
OPTIMISTIC "There are lots of flowers that have developed into small pods because of the sunshine, and a lot of beans are coming out of the bush because they have been well dried," said Tchorna Silue, who farms near the port of San Pedro. "We are very optimistic because the mixture of rain and sun is going to assure large quantities and good quality until next year," Silue added. In the eastern region of Abengourou, known for the good quality of its beans, farmers said harvesting would pick up next month before tailing off sharply in January.
"The big harvest will come in November and December then it will tumble in January because there are few flowers and pods on the trees in lots of areas here," said Joseph Amani, who farms near Abengourou. In the centre-west region of Daloa, which produces a quarter of Ivory Coast's output, farmers said fungal black pod disease had damaged a lot of the crop because of wet weather.
In the Aboisso region in the south, where disease has been spreading for several weeks, farmers said this month's harvest was lower than last season because of disease-damaged pods. "We took advantage of four days of sun to harvest the crop but our losses have been enormous. A lot of pods have rotted. We need these rains to stop and the sun to come out," said Etienne Yao, who farms near Aboisso.