Cocoa arrivals at ports in world top grower Ivory Coast reached 989,549 tonnes from October 1 to March 2, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 888,893 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated around 11,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports between February 25 and March 2, up from 4,269 tonnes in the same week a year ago. That compared with 15,228 tonnes of beans arriving at Abidjan and San Pedro ports in the previous week.
"Arrivals continue to fall. That is in line with our forecasts and there are no surprises even if the quality has not improved as we expected," said the head of a major European export company based in Abidjan. He said acidity levels remained high in the beans and the size remained small at between 110 and 115 beans per 100 grams.
Another executive with an international exporter in Abidjan said many companies had suspended purchases of beans because of the low quality on offer. "We have decided to stay out of the market for a while because the quality is not good," said the executive. "Last week, we bought only 80 tonnes from the two ports whereas we could have bought at least 1,000 tonnes."