According to Côte d’Ivoire farmers, rains were mainly below average last week in most of the country’s central cocoa-growing regions.
Plenty of small and average pods were developing well for a strong start to the October-to-March main crop.
Côte d’Ivoire is in its April-to-October rainy season, and several farmers said they were happy with the level of downpours, but more sunny hours would be needed to strengthen the crop.
In the central western region of Daloa, which produces a quarter of national output, farmers said there was no longer a risk that trees carrying plenty of fruit would be damaged in the next two months.
The trees have yielded well. Harvesting will start very slowly from the end of this month.
Albert N’Zue, farmer near Daloa
Farmers across the cocoa region agreed and commented that a combination of sun and rain from mid-August would help.
According to data collected by Reuters, rainfall in Daloa was at 19.3 millimetres (mm), 4.3 mm below the five-year average.
In the western region of Soubre, farmers said that cherelles and small pods harvested after October could suffer from the cold.
Similar growing conditions were reported in the southern region of Divo, where 26.9 mm fell last week, 13.5 mm above the average.
Average temperatures over the past week ranged from 23.5 to 25.5 degrees Celsius across the country.
