Farmers in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions reported an intensification of the Harmattan weather phenomenon over the past week, raising concerns that its effects were damaging trees and could reduce the size of this season's crop. The 2014/15 main crop harvest opened on October 1 and farmers have said they expect abundant output through to the end of January.
However, port arrivals are well behind the pace of last season's record crop, and growers said the impact of the Harmattan - a dusty wind that usually blows in from the Sahara from December to March - was already being felt in many areas. "The trees are starting to suffer. The leaves have turned yellow. There's a risk that many small pods will drop off, reducing the size of the harvest," said Marcel Aka, a farmer from the centre-western region of Daloa.
Ivory Coast is in the midst of the dry season which runs from mid-November to March. Plantations require intermittent showers even during the dry months, however, to ensure a good crop. Farmers across Ivory Coast said there were no rain showers during the past week.
"We're seeing that some cherelles (small pods) are drying out due to a lack of water," said Joseph Amani, a farmers in Abengourou, a western region known for the high quality of its beans. "If it stays dry like this, they will fall off and the farmers think there won't be much cocoa in February and March," he said. In the western region of Duekoue, farmers said that two weeks after the Harmattan's arrival, there were no signs of damage to the crop. However, they said they worried for the future.
"There's no problem for the moment. But if we have a month of that the effects will start being felt beginning in February. The beans will be small here," said farmer Amara Kone, who farms in Duekoue. Despite the intensity of this year's Harmattan, farmers in the western region of Soubre were optimistic over the output of the main crop there.