Cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast reached 1.249 million tonnes between October 1 and June 25, according to a rough estimate by exporters on Monday. That put arrivals since the start of the 2005/06 season on par with a year ago, when the same quantity of beans had been delivered at the two ports in the world's top cocoa producer.
Arrivals had until now been higher than in the previous season. The figures, which differ from a more precise aggregated estimate normally released later in the week, showed that around 19,000 tonnes of beans arrived at ports between June 19 and 25.
"The fall in arrivals is more important than we had expected even if they remain good," said the director of a European exporting company in Abidjan.
"Arrivals have been falling steadily over the last few weeks to less than 25,000 tonnes but we hope that more beans will be available from this week," he added.