Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast had reached around 186,000 tonnes by November 13 since the season started in October, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 203,870 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated around 40,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports between November 7 and 13, up from 11,014 tonnes in the same week a year ago, as volumes that had been trailing last season's by more than a third started to catch up.
But exporters said quality had declined because farmers had been stockpiling cocoa in the bush during a price dispute since the start of the season. Farmers complained that they were not receiving the sector-wide indicative price, so refused to sell, which led to poor quality beans due to the lack of decent storage.
"Things are going a lot better compared with the start of the season. We got around 40,000 tonnes this week, but our preoccupation now is the quality," said the director of a European export house in Abidjan. "If we don't sort it out, then in a few weeks time there's going to be a mountain of poor quality beans that we won't be able to export and the local grinders will snap them up."
Farmers have been holding back their beans in the hope of receiving prices closer to the sector-wide indicative price of 1,000 CFA francs ($2.09) per kilogramme. Guaranteeing farmers a greater share of the market price of the cocoa they produce is at the heart of cocoa reforms the government signed off on the week before last. Even though volumes are looking better, exporters said the quality of the beans coming through was deteriorating. And exporters said there were still not enough high quality beans coming out of the bush to meet contracts. "A part of the December contract could be compromised if the farmers continue with this protest, because it takes time to buy, treat and export the beans," said a San Pedro-based exporter.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.