ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Rainfall was below average last week in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions but soil moisture remained high and farmers predicted a strong end to the April-to-September mid-crop.
Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season which runs from April to mid-November.
Rainfall was below average in the western region of Soubre, the southern region of Agboville and the eastern region of Abengourou, and above average in the southern region of Divo last week, data collected by Reuters showed.
Farmers in all of those regions said they expected the harvest to be abundant this month and decline next month before rising sharply from mid–August to September.
“Conditions were good for the trees this year. We will have lots of cocoa in the weeks to come,” said Abel Doua, who farms near Soubre, where 27.3 mm of rain fell last week, 28.2 mm below the five-year average.
Farmers said they expected bean quality to improve from late July in the centre-western region of Daloa and the central region of Yamoussoukro, where rainfall was below average, and in the central region of Bongouanou, where it was above average.
“If it continues to rain with good sun, the beans will be bigger starting from the end of July,” said Claude Daro, who farms near Daloa, where 25.5 mm of rain fell last week, 3.8 mm below the average.
Average temperatures ranged from 25.6 to 28.7 degrees Celsius in Ivory Coast last week.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Alison Williams)
