Ivorian cocoa arrivals slightly lower

Cocoa arrivals to ports in top grower Ivory Coast are slightly lower than at the same time last season after a bout of unrest last week and temporary lags in the cycle of the season, exporters said on Monday. Arrivals to port have broadly kept pace with last year's volumes despite an at times violent dispute over who won the November 28 presidential election, with incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refusing to cede power to rival claimant Alassane Ouattara.
The total reached around 636,000 tonnes by January 9 since the start of the season in October, according to exporter estimates obtained by Reuters, compared with 702,061 tonnes of cocoa that arrived during the same period last season.
Exporters estimated around 40,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports between January 1 and January 9, down from 79,000 tonnes last year. A director of an export company in Abidjan put the drop down to ethnic unrest that flared up in the western town of Duekoue last week, killing at least 14 people and forcing thousands to flee, and to a temporary lag in the season's standard cycle.
"Growers are just beginning to dry and prepare beans that won't be available for about 10-15 days," said the official. The region around Duekoue produces around 200,000 tonnes or about a sixth of Ivory Coast's average total of 1.2 million tonnes of cocoa a year.
"We received a lot less cocoa this week because of the problems in Duekoue," said an exporter in the port of San Pedro which receives the cocoa from Duekoue. Exporters said it was natural for volumes to fall around this time of year but maintained expectations that overall volumes would be stronger than last year.
Even at the height of Ivory Coast's civil war in 2002-2003, cocoa beans still managed to get from the bush to the ports as the industry used lulls in fighting to make deliveries. January to March marks the period between the main and mid crops, when harvesting slows and weather becomes drier, owing to the seasonal Harmattan winds blowing south from the Sahara.