Cocoa continued to reach Ivory Coast's ports last week, but virtually none of it was registered for export as shippers observed a ban called by presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara, exporters said on Monday. The halt in registrations comes alongside European Union shipping restrictions that exporters have said threaten to fill up warehouse space at the docks, as tonnage already cleared for shipment is backed up.
Some 895,000 tonnes of cocoa reached Ivory Coast's two ports by January 30 since the start of the season in October, marking a 14 percent increase from the same period a year-ago, according to a consensus estimate from exporters. But the figure included 40,000 tonnes from the week ended January 30, none of which was registered for shipment, the exporters said.
"So far, there is no prohibition on accepting bean deliveries from farmers, and we're doing that in order to recuperate what we have paid for in advance," said one purchases manager in Abidjan. "But none of these beans have been registered for export," he said. Other exporters based in both Abidjan and San Pedro confirmed that new beans were not being registered.
Ouattara, recognized by Western powers and African states as the winner of a November 28 presidential election, last week called for a one-month ban on cocoa registrations to starve incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo of tax revenues. The ban was called a week after the European Union imposed restrictions on EU-registered vessels doing business in Ivory Coast that exporters said was making it hard for them to ship beans that had already been registered.
Together, the moves threaten to test Ivory Coast's storage capacity, and raise the question of what could happen to beans once storage fills up, they said. Analysts said, however, the moves come after the bulk of the 2010-11 harvest has already left Ivory Coast's plantations, meaning the impact on supply will be limited.
Cocoa futures pulled back from one-year peaks on Monday after a rally on Ivorian supply concerns. Gbagbo has shown no sign of caving in to international pressure to step down after the country's top legal body reversed UN-certified results showing Ouattara as the winner, citing fraud in Ouattara strongholds.