Unseasonal rain to strengthen Ivorian cocoa crop
Unseasonal rain
mixed with lengthy spells of sunshine last week in most of Ivory
Coast’s cocoa growing regions augured well for healthy development of
the 2010/11 main crop, farmers and analysts said on Monday.
Ivory Coast is in
the dry season when rains are normally scarce. Farmers welcomed the
latest precipitation, saying it will strengthen the development of
flowers and small pods to pave the way to an abundant crop compared
with last year.
Ivory Coast’s cocoa
regulator projected 800,000 tonnes of output during the main crop, down
100,000 tonnes from last season due to black pod disease, but analysts
think the forecast is low and see good weather pushing volumes above a
year ago.
“Weather conditions
are favourable to growing lots of cocoa this year. There has been
abundant rainfall in December, and it is rare to see that,” said Lazare
Ake, a farmer in the western region of Soubre, which accounts for about
a third of Ivory Coast’s cocoa output.
“There are many
more pods than last year. This means that we’ll have more cocoa this
year,” said Labbe Zoungrana, who farms near San Pedro.
About 43 mm of rain
fell in the town of Soubre, and 13 mm fell in Sassandra, the southern
part of the Soubre region, analysts said.
In the southern region of Aboisso, analysts reported about 36.3 mm of rain last week mixed with sunshine.
“We have a mix of
sun and enough rain for the dry season. The volumes of large beans will
be higher this year compared to last,” said one analyst.
In the centre-west
region of Daloa, which accounts for 358,000 tonnes of Ivory Coast’s
roughly 1.2 million tonnes of yearly output, farmers were happy with
one abundant rain during the last week.
“The farmers are
happy with this rain. It will help the trees ahead of the harmattan
(seasonal wind),” said farmer Attoungbre Kouame, adding fewer trees
were likely to die during the dry season.
In the region of Abengourou, which produces about 75,000 tonnes a
year, an analyst working for an industrial plantation reported about
8mm of rainfall.
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