Greater amounts of poor quality cocoa have been arriving at Ivory Coast ports, prompting some operators to suspend purchases of beans from farms, due to heavy rainfall and insufficient sunshine, exporters, middlemen and farmers said on Thursday. Cocoa farmers require an equal distribution of abundant rainfall and periods of sunshine to grow and dry cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate. But heavy downpours have battered farms in the past weeks in the world's top grower.
Fearing the situation could get worse and pressured by the Ivorian cocoa regulator to export only quality cocoa, some buyers have decided to suspend purchases until weather conditions improve.