Ivory Coast cocoa farmers said their trees were loaded with ripe cocoa pods and that sunny intervals last week enabled crops to dry, quelling fears that low rainfall earlier this year might have hit production.
The government last week said it is expecting around 500,000 tonnes of beans for the April-to-September mid-crop harvest which has just started, and around 2 million tonnes of beans in total for the 2017/18 season, not far off record highs seen the previous season.
This is despite low rainfall during the dry season which made some concerned that output would drop significantly compared to last year. Farmers said they were satisfied with current levels of soil moisture, but said more rain would be needed in April to boost the final stage of the mid-crop.
"We have already harvested for the first time and there are still many small fruits left on the trees for later," said Amadou Diallo, who farms in the outskirts of the southern region of Divo.
"If we have good rain this month we will have a lot of high-quality cocoa in two months," he said. Data collected by Reuters showed that rainfall in Divo was at 11.9 mm last week, 8.9 mm below average.
In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers said they were expecting an abundant crop next month as many big pods were almost ripe. "Harvests will be shy until the end of this month, but after that there will be a lot of cocoa," said Lazare Ake, who farms near Soubre.
"There are many small pods on the trees. If rainfall is good in April there will be many beans over the coming months," said Ake. Data showed that rainfall in Soubre, which includes the regions of Sassandra and San Pedro, was at 5.8 mm last week, 10.9 mm below average.
Data also showed that the centre-western region of Daloa, which produces a quarter of national output, received 6.2 mm of rainfall last week, 12.8 mm below average. Still, farmers there said they were satisfied with moisture levels.