Dry weather worries Ivorian cocoa farmers

Flowers and pods on cocoa trees in some of Ivory Coast's main growing areas are drying up and dying after two weeks without rain, farmers said on Monday, signalling bad news for the coming mid-crop season. A weak April-to-September mid-crop would exacerbate poor supplies from the world's top grower nation after a drought cut the October-to-March main harvest short and undermined the quality of the last trickle of beans.
"I haven't seen rain in the area in two weeks," said Abel Konan, who farms on the outskirts of Daloa, an area that produces a quarter of the Ivorian crop. "The mid-crop is going to be hard. I don't see how we can have cocoa in two months time because there are very few flowers and the pods are small on the trees," he said.
In the western region of Bouafle, farmers said small pods and new flowers were dying as the consequence of a lack of humidity and the hot weather. "It is not raining at all. All the small pods and flowers are dying because of the lack of rain and the heat. It is not at all good," said farmer Denis Alla. "The mid-crop will start late. But for us to have any cocoa, we need at least one rain per week through the end of April," he said.
Growing conditions were better elsewhere in the country. In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, analysts reported about 42 millimetres of rains over three days compared with 42 mm in a single day the week before. "We are happy. The small pods are growing. We will start to have some cocoa by the end of April, but the volumes will get bigger in May and June," said farmer Salam Kone.
Similar growing conditions were reported in the southern region of Aboisso where analyst reported 13 mm of rain compared with 19.3 mm the previous week. In the eastern region of Abengourou, analyst reported 12 mm of rain compared with none the week before.