Cocoa farmgate prices in Ivory Coast's main growing regions rose last week as exporters competed for scarce supplies at the end of the main crop and international markets climbed, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday. The top grower nation's October-to-March main crop is drawing to an early close after an unusually long dry and windy spell hampered growing, and farmers expect the first beans of the April-September midcrop will not arrive until May or June.
"It is difficult to find beans and the world market was generally higher last week. That's been supporting farmgate prices," said the purchases manager of a European cocoa export company, asking not to be named. He said prices at the port of Abidjan were 790-820 CFA francs ($1.61-$1.67) per kg, up from around 790-800 CFA/kg the previous week.
In the centre-west region of Daloa, producing a quarter of Ivory Coast's national output, farmers said the average price climbed to 600-650 CFA/kg from 550-600 CFA/kg the week before on increased demand from exporters. "Warehouse prices rose because there's no cocoa left in the region," said farmer Marcel Aka. "There are fewer trucks upcountry. Two or three days can go by without seeing them, whereas in December we saw dozens every day."
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