Abundant rainfall in most of Ivory Coast's cocoa regions last week is helping flowers develop into small pods and bodes well for the October-to-March main crop, farmers said on Monday. Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is wrapping up its April-to-September mid-crop and preparing for the 2018/2019 season, which will start in October this year.
Farmers, who have been helped by strong rains in recent weeks, said many flowers were turning into small pods. A mix of regular showers and sunshine would boost the crop, they said. "The weather is good. We have more small pods on trees than last year," said Amadou Diallo, who farms in the outskirts of the southern Divo region. "If we have enough sunshine there will be plenty of harvests from October onwards," said Diallo. Data collected by Reuters showed that rainfall in Divo was at 32.8 millimetres (mm) last week, 11.2 mm above the five-year average.
In the western region of Soubre, the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers said they now needed more sunny spells as the soil was sufficiently moist. "We need a lot of sun to help flowers survive," said Kouassi Kouame, who farms near Soubre. Data showed that rainfall in Soubre, including San Pedro and Sassandra, was at 31.3 mm last week, 3.2 mm above the five-year average.
Farmers also reported good growing conditions in the southern region of Agboville, the eastern region of Aboisso, the central region of Yamoussoukro and the western region of Man. Rainfall in Agboville was 14.8 mm above average last week, at 42.3 mm, and at 30.9 mm in Aboisso, 2.1 mm above average. In Yamoussoukro rainfall was at 23.8 mm, 3.8 mm above average. Man, however, only received 7.5 mm of rain last week, 19.9 mm below average.
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