Three cocoa exporters in Ivory Coast have said, they and others in the top producer were shutting down operations on Tuesday as a precaution before the announcement of the results of a hotly-contested election. "Everyone is shutting down their (operations) in Abidjan and here in San Pedro," Ali Lakiss, managing director of Saf Cacoa, told Reuters.
Exporters say shutting operations as a precaution Senior officials in two other exporting companies said they were also closing their doors and sending staff home. Ivory Coast's election commission has said it would start on Tuesday releasing the results of Sunday's election, which analysts say is likely to be a tight race between incumbent President Laurent Gbabgo and rivals Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara.
"We don't know how the different political leaders will react after the results are announced so we are shutting everything down and will wait and see what happens," said the director of an Abidjan-based exporting company. Analysts have said there is a risk of street violence if a losing candidate has rejected results of the poll.
All three exporters said cocoa arrivals to ports would stop as a result. It was not clear what impact the move would have on cocoa already delivered to ports, but exporters said many shippers had shut down as well. Ivorian cocoa arrivals are already running well-below a year ago, with exporters blaming days taken off by workers in the sector ahead of Sunday's vote. Arrivals at ports reached 149,000 tonnes by October 31 since the start of the season October 1, exporters estimated, versus 183,141 tonnes in the same period a year ago.