Ivory Coast's cocoa co-operatives have started receiving government loans to purchase beans for the 2004/05 season though exporters said on Monday that cocoa arrivals are still lagging last year's bumper crop. Many cooperatives in the world's top cocoa grower had been buying less cocoa or stopped purchasing altogether last month as their funds ran low during the wait for financing.
Marie-Louise Acquah, a member of a government commodities committee in the West African country, said this trend should be reversed as cooperatives begin receiving money from the loan.
"We have already financed 77 cooperatives out of 200 which applied for financing with 1.6 billion CFA and we will deal with the other applications in the coming days," said Acquah.
"For the moment, the co-operatives are not buying much cocoa but we hope they will increase their buying capacity with the financing," she told Reuters.
Farmers went on strike at the start of the season in October, blocking deliveries to ports, as union leaders fought with the government over how much money co-operatives could borrow and whether they would have to pay interest on it.
Buyers and co-operatives said on Monday that bean buying remained subdued in the bush, as many co-operatives in the former French colony were still waiting to be financed.
"Purchases dropped a lot during last week because of the lack of financing which is preventing everyone from working properly," said Charlemagne Panou, manager of the Sifca-Coop co-operative in the western cocoa town of Duekoue.
"The week hasn't got off to a great start. There is not a lot arriving in the ports - about 800 tonnes have been received by exporters today when it was 3,000 tonnes in the previous weeks," said a salesman at a leading US exporter in San Pedro.
According to estimates by major exporters, some 254,612 tonnes of cocoa had been received at Ivory Coast's two ports by November 30, down 20 percent from 318,793 tonnes a year earlier.
Nagib Attie, director of independent buyer SKCC in the western port city of San Pedro, said private buyers in the bush were also afflicted by a lack of cash.
"I don't have a single cocoa bean in my store. I have tried to continue buying but it's difficult without funding. We are doing our best to send lorries to the bush but volumes are low - about 20 tonnes instead of 150 when all is going well."
Patrice N'Guessan, president of the Coad co-operative in Duekoue, said some buyers deemed the risks too high to buy cocoa in the turbulent western region near Liberia, regardless of cash flow, because they feared being robbed.
"The region is still unstable in spite of the calm elsewhere because of militias armed with Kalashnikovs and wearing fatigues ... racketeering our cocoa lorries."
"That doesn't encourage anyone to leave their money in the bush, the insecurity is too great here," he said.