Abundant rainfall and sunshine that continued last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions should improve pod development for the April-to-September cocoa mid-crop, farmers said on Monday. Farmers in the world's top cocoa producer said small volumes of beans were currently leaving plantations.
Next month will be critical for the last stage of the mid-crop in French-speaking West Africa's largest economy. At least two heavy rains per week in May would help the harvest of quality beans from July to September, farmers said. In western region Soubre, in the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers said there were few mature pods on the trees and the harvest so far had been small and contained beans of poor quality. But they noted that rainfall had been good for the trees, although Salame Kone, who farms in the outskirts of the western region, said more rain would still be necessary.
"We need more heavy rains each week for the entire month of May so that the harvests will be abundant starting in July," said Kone. In the centre-western region of Daloa, which produces a quarter of Ivory Coast's national output alone, farmers said they were happy with the weather this week. But Antoine N'Guessan, who farms near Daloa, said it needed to continue. "We need more rain so the numerous pods do not dry out," said N'Guessan. Good growing conditions were reported in the southern regions of Aboisso, Agboville and Divo and in the western regions of Duekoue and Gagnoa.