Cocoa purchases declared to Ghana's industry regulator, Cocobod, stood at 392,532 tonnes by November 28 following the first nine weeks of the 2016/17 season, according to Cocobod data seen by Reuters on Monday. The figure marked a slight increase from 380,662 tonnes of beans purchased in the world's number 2 cocoa producer in the first nine weeks of last season.
Officials expect a delayed crop this year with Cocobod aiming to buy the bulk of its 850,000 to 900,000-tonne target by June, a senior government source involved in managing the cocoa sector said. Typically, Ghana buys around 70 percent of its cocoa by January. "The season has been slow but we believe we'll make the target. Thankfully the rains have set in and we're aiming at about 780,000 (tonnes) by June, then about (another) 60 to 70 (thousand tonnes) by September," the source told Reuters.
Ghana produced 778,043 tonnes in last year and farmers say they expect output to improve this season. "We have more pods coming up and flowering has begun after the drought and with more rains," said Lawrence Adu, who farms near the Eastern region town of Tafo. The West African nation operates a partially-liberalised cocoa marketing system with Cocobod providing revolving seed money to licensed buying companies (LBC) to purchase beans on its behalf.