Ivory Coast rains support cocoa mid-crop development, farmers say

Mostly below-average rains combined with sunny intervals last week in much of thee Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions supported the development of ‌the upcoming April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday.

Mostly below-average rains combined with sunny intervals last week in much of thee Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions supported the development of ‌the upcoming April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday. Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is in its dry season which runs officially from mid-November to March, ⁠when rains are poor and scarce.

Most farmers across the cocoa regions said they were satisfied with last week's rainfall levels and soil moisture content, which were sustaining the crop and encouraging flowers to flourish on plantation trees. Farmers ​said that another round of good rainfall was needed before the end of the month to ‍encourage more flowers to bloom and aid their transformation into small pods.

Some cooperatives told Reuters they were eager to sell their beans, though purchasing remained slow. Farmers said harvesting for the main crop was declining, but they anticipated significant volumes of beans would ⁠be ready ‌for transport in February and ⁠March. "It's good to have rain at this time of year. We'll have lots of flowers on the trees if the ‍rain continues," said Kouassi Kouame, who farms near the western region of Soubre, where 2 mm fell last week, 1.1 ​mm below the five-year average.

In the southern region of Divo, where rains were above average, and ⁠in southern region of Agboville and the eastern region Abengourou, where rains were both below average, farmers said the mid-crop was developing ⁠well, but they struggled to sell beans due to a lack of buyers. In the centre-western region of Daloa, in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were below average, farmers said if the ⁠weather remained adequate in February the mid-crop would start strong in April.

"If it rains well in February, ⁠we will have enough ‌cocoa at the start of the mid-crop season," said Albert N'Zue, who farms near Daloa, where 1 mm fell last week, 0.2 mm below the five-year average. The ⁠weekly average temperature ranged from 28-30.5 degrees Celsius.

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