Farmers across most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions said on Monday more sunshine and rains were needed from September to boost the next October-to-March main crop.

The world’s largest cocoa producer is in the middle of the rainy season, which runs from April to mid-November. However, rains were mostly well below average last week, farmers told Reuters.

They added that a good mix of sun and rainfall would help cocoa trees to reach their maximum potential and deliver an abundant harvest from November.

Farmers said many pods were growing on trees, but the next month’s weather would determine their size. Overcast weather could trigger disease in plantations.

In the western region of Soubre, the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, and the eastern region of Abengourou, where rains were below average, farmers said they were happy with the state of many pods of different sizes ripening on trees.

Farmers in those regions said they were expecting to get one big harvest per month in September and October and two big harvests per month in November and December.

“The trees are bearing a lot of pods. We expect to have a big harvest this year,” said Alphonse Zoua, who farms near Soubre, where 2 mm of rain fell last week, 13 mm above the five-year average.

In the west-central region of Daloa and the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were well below average, farmers said harvesting would pick up sharply from mid-September, but the quality of beans would depend on the sun.

“If there isn’t enough sun in a few weeks, the first beans will be of poor quality,” said Louis N’Goran, who farms near Daloa, where 1.2 mm of rain fell last week, 23.6 mm below the five-year average.

Weekly average temperatures across Ivory Coast last week ranged from 23.4 to 25.7 degrees Celsius (74.12 to 78.26 degrees Fahrenheit).
Source: Reuters