YAOUNDE: Cameroon's 2013/14 cocoa production slipped more than 8 percent to 209,905 tonnes compared with 228,948 tonnes the previous season, National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) data obtained on Friday showed.
Cocoa bean exports from the world's fifth largest producer fell nearly 20 percent to 158,000 tonnes from 196,788 tonnes in the 2012/13 season.
There were 5,828 tonnes of remaining stocks of beans at the end of the season on July 31.
"We had expected that there would be an increase in production for the 2013/14 season to about 240,000 tonnes, but unfortunately it instead declined," Omer Gatien Maledy, head of the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Board (CCIB), said. Maledy said poor weather was mainly to blame for the drop in output. "The rainy season last year was very different from what Cameroon is used to, going on until mid-December and resulting in the black pod disease," he said.
Cameroon's cocoa production hit a record of 240,000 tonnes in the 2010/11 season before dropping to 220,000 tonnes in 2011/12 due to a prolonged dry season and attacks by pests and diseases.
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