Cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast reached around 1,292,000 tonnes for the entire 2006/07 cocoa season from October 1 to September 30, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,386,938 tonnes last year.
Exporters estimated around 26,000 tonnes were received at the two ports in the world's top cocoa grower during the September 24-30 period, compared with 17,191 tonnes a year earlier. Annual production of around 1.3 million tonnes is roughly the average seasonal output in Ivory Coast. "The 2006/07 season is finished now and we can say it finished well when it had been very difficult during the second half (mid crop)," said the director of a major European exporter in Abidjan.
"We had a lot of beans at the end of the season to make up for our disappointment," he said. Output during this year's April-September mid crop, the smaller of two annual growing cycles, was slashed after months of by drought-like conditions.