Cameroon exported at least 11,000 tonnes of cocoa in August, a strong start to the 2006/2007 season in the world's fourth biggest grower and almost double the amount shipped a year ago.
The National Office of Cocoa and Coffee (NOCC), the central African country's industry regulator, said the season had started early and that between 11,000 and 12,000 tonnes had been exported in August.
"There are still a few adjustments to be made to refine the figure, a few operations that need to be taken into account in the days to come, but the final figure should be between 11,000 and 12,000 tonnes," a senior NOCC official said.
Cameroon shipped 6,234 tonnes of cocoa in August last year.
The key South-West Province of the central African country, which has in the past produced as much as 50 percent of the country's cocoa exports, had provided a large part of the output so far this season.
Growers say rainfall in the region has dropped significantly since late July and there has been lots of sunshine, allowing beans to dry much more quickly than in previous years.
"The season had already started in this region in July," one grower said.
Cocoa production in Cameroon, which trails Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia in terms of output, has suffered from falling prices on the world market and the negative effects of sudden liberalisation in the early 1990s, which caught many farmers unprepared.
The country's state-run cocoa development company SODECAO hopes to convince over 5,000 farmers who abandoned cocoa growing to resume cultivation in the 2006/2007 season.
It said in August it planned to distribute up to 2 million high-yield seedlings to farmers this season as part of an effort to boost production to 200,000 tonnes a year by 2010.
Unfavourable weather drove production down to 164,553 tonnes in 2005/2006 season although farmers and merchants had predicted a stronger start to the current season, which began on August 1.
The country produced just 3,039 tonnes of beans in the first month of its 2004/2005 season and 3,012 tonnes in August the year before that, according to industry data.