Cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast picked up in March, narrowing the gap with last season as prices offered by shippers edged higher, industry data showed on Wednesday. Deliveries totalled 957,778 tonnes between the beginning of the current campaign in October last year and March 20, according to an estimate by leading exporters. That compared with 1,024,159 tonnes delivered to ports during the same period of the 2003/04 season.
The exporters' figures showed that 14,224 tonnes of cocoa arrived at ports in the world's top grower between March 14-20.
Previous arrivals figures released by exporters showed a shortfall of some 108,000 tonnes by February 27 compared with the previous season.
"What we are seeing is that despite the fact that we are at the end of the main crop, the higher prices are encouraging the delivery of bigger volumes to the ports," said one European exporter based in the main city Abidjan.
A merchant in Meadji, about 100 km (63 miles) north of the western port of San Pedro, said prices offered by shippers there had gone up since the beginning of March, prompting a shopping spree by smaller buyers.