Continued hot and dry weather in western Ivory Coast, a key cocoa growing region, heightened worries among farmers that supply could drop off starting early next year.Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa producer, accounting for more than a third of global supply, and much of the output comes from plantations in the west.
He said the lack of rain in recent weeks was impeding trees from producing new pods that would be harvested from January onward, leaving only larger pods for prompt harvest.