Cocoa quality problems cause high rejection rates in Ivory Coast

High rejection rates meant less than 50,000 tonnes of cocoa were accepted at Ivory Coast's ports in the first two weeks of February compared with 82,000 tonnes estimated by exporters, an official said on Friday. "It's hard to give a figure, but around one-third of volumes arriving from the bush are rejected due to quality problems," the senior marketing official at the Coffee and Cocoa Council told Reuters.
He said the board's agents had seen a spike in free fatty acid (FFA) levels in beans along with other quality problems linked to an unusually harsh Harmattan weather phenomenon in December and January.