Cocoa purchases declared by private buyers to Ghana's Cocobod industry regulator reached 567,908 tonnes between October 13 and May 24, an industry source said on Tuesday. That compared with 594,089 tonnes declared in the first 32 weeks of last season's main crop, which began on October 7, 2005.
Output in the world's second biggest cocoa producer has been hit by a lack of rain earlier this year. Recent rains bode well for a strong and early start to the 2007/08 main crop but have come too late to significantly boost the mid crop, industry sources said.
"The rainfall has been good, if we get some good sunshine, we may have some results (for the mid crop)," an industry source said. Cocobod officials have previously said Ghana will harvest 550,000 to 560,000 tonnes of cocoa during the 2006/07 main crop, meaning output for the whole year will be well below an earlier forecast of 700,000 tonnes.