ABIDJAN: Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,348,000 tonnes by Sept. 9, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,429,393 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.
Exporters estimated around 9,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports from Sept. 3 to Sept. 9, down from 17,501 tonnes in the same week a year ago.
Poor weather mid-way through the 2011/12 season is expected to lead to a drop in output compared to the previous year's record harvests.
Farmers and exporters hope production will improve for the 2012/13 campaign, which opens on Oct. 1, but a month of cool, cloudy weather and the appearance of disease have dampened optimism.
"Production appears relatively good, but due to the presence of swollen shoot and black pod we will likely see a drop in production for the next main crop," said the director of a European export firm during a visit to Ivory Coast on Monday.
"They should be around 1 million tonnes for the main crop compared to the 1.046 million they reached this season. It's not much, but it could be worse if these diseases develop further in the coming weeks," he said.
Cocoa futures hit a 10-month high last week on concerns over the forthcoming season in West Africa.
ICE December cocoa fell $14 or 0.5 percent on Monday to $2,662 per tonne. Liffe December cocoa futures traded off 5 pounds ($8.01) or 0.3 percent at 1,711 pounds a tonne.
Fears that an unevenly managed reform of Ivory Coast's cocoa sector will cause chaos in its exports are also likely to support prices of the chocolate ingredient.
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