ACCRA: Cocoa purchases declared to Ghana's industry regulator following the first 16 weeks of the 2016/17 season stood at 611,763 tonnes, Cocobod data seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
This marked a dip from 621,661 tonnes of beans bought in the world's number two cocoa producer over the same period last season.
Total purchases for the week ending Jan. 19 slowed to around 16,000 tonnes from between 37,000 tonnes and 25,000 tonnes in the last three weeks, the data showed. The West African nation harvested 780,000 tonnes of beans last season.
It is aiming to buy 850,000 to 900,000 tonnes of beans by the close of the 2016/17 season in September, and a senior Cocobod official said he remained hopeful the target would be met despite the slowing pace of the harvest.
"The prospects are still good even though output has dipped a bit, there's been some rains in recent weeks and we believe that will boost the harvest," he told Reuters.
Reports from the field indicate that Ghana's light crop harvest will be "favourable", a second Cocobod source said. Ghana's new government last week named Joseph Aidoo, a cocoa expert and former minister for the cocoa-rich Western Region, as chief executive of Cocobod.
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