More than 90 percent of Ivory Coast's stockpiled cocoa has retained its quality despite being stuck in warehouses for over three months during a violent political standoff, exporters said on Friday. The world's leading cocoa producer resumed raw bean exports on Sunday, after months of inactivity because of an export ban, European trade sanctions, a crippled banking system and weeks of civil war.
But there is a backlog of nearly half a million tonnes at Ivory Coast's two ports, and analysts have said markets are nervous about the quality. "We are at less than 10 percent of poor quality," said Solange N'Guessan, director of San Pedro-based exporter UCAS.
"We were lucky because the crisis didn't last long and it didn't occur during the rainy season. That would have destroyed a big part of the stock with severe consequences." Several other officials at cocoa exporting companies also said less than 10 percent of their stocks rotted, and one added that some of the poor quality beans would remain exportable at a deep price discount.
"We feared for our stock but when we did quality tests, only about 5-7 percent of it had to be taken out. The rest was good," said a trader from a European exporter in Abidjan, who asked not to be named. "The biggest worry now is a jam at the ports with slow operations."
The regulating body said on Monday that Ivory Coast should be able to export around 50,000 tonnes of cocoa this month and Olam International Ltd, one of the world's top four buyers of cocoa beans, projected exports of around 150,000 tonnes of beans in May and June from the West African nation.
Instead of heading to its usual market in Europe, however, much of the cocoa is going to the United States where prices are higher because buyers are seeking to plug shortfalls in Indonesian supply. If it turns out to be bad, analysts say chocolate makers may have to wait to blend it with the better-quality midcrop. Purchases of beans up-country also dried up during the crisis but exporters say activity is now picking up despite insecurity persisting in many of the growing regions.