YAOUNDE: Cameroon exported 179,587 tonnes of cocoa beans during the 2011/12 cocoa season, just over 10 percent less than the year before, provisional data from the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) showed on Friday.
July exports of beans from the No. 5 grower were 5,188 tonnes, up from 3,169 tonnes the month before and 3,453 tonnes in the same month last year.
This year's fall in production has been blamed on a poor mid-crop harvest due to attacks by pests earlier this year and the prolonged dry season that lasted into mid-April instead of mid-March as usual.
Cameroon's total cocoa production hit a record 240,000 tonnes in the 2010/11 season. The Cocoa Development Authority (SODECAO) predicted output would reach 250,000 tonnes in 2011/12, but industry bodies estimate that output this year is set to fall by 10-15 percent.
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