Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast see promising main crop

Many cocoa trees in Ivory Coast's key growing regions are flowering, with some showing small pods in a promising sign for the October to March main crop, farmers said on Monday, adding though that more sunshine is needed to boost growth.

The world's largest cocoa producer is in its rainy season, which runs officially from April to mid-November. Rains are typically abundant during this period but last week were below average in most of the country's cocoa growing regions.

Several growers told Reuters that high soil moisture content was helping the crop and that there were more flowers and young fruits on trees at the moment compared with the same period last year.

At plantations, crops showed no signs of damage, and farmers hoped the coming harvest would be healthy with first beans available by mid-September.

The farmers said more sunny spells in the coming weeks would protect crops against diseases, adding the quality of beans should improve sharply from mid-August.

"So far, so good," said Denis Gba, who farms near the western region of Soubre, where 31.3mm of rain fell last year, 10.7mm above the five-year average. "But the trees will need a lot of sun and a little rain for the main crop to be abundant."

Farmers in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, and in the eastern region of Abengourou — where rainfall was below the five-year average — made similar comments.

In the west-central region of Daloa, in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, farmers said a good mix of sun and rainfall in August would help the next main crop to be abundant.

"If the weather is good in August, we'll have plenty of harvest at the start of the main crop in October," said Albert N’Zue, who farms near Daloa, where 3.2mm of rain fell last week, 17.3mm below the five-year average.

Some farmers said they expected the April to September mid-crop to finish strong as enough big pods were maturing in good condition on trees.

Weekly average temperatures across Ivory Coast last week ranged from around 24-27°C.

Reuters