Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast will need more rain if the outlook for the next harvest is to improve in the world’s largest producer of the chocolate beans.
Showers forecast for coming days will bring “minimal relief” after rainfall was 40 per cent below normal from 1 July to 19 August, according to MDA Weather Services and Speedwell Weather. Recent light rain wasn’t enough to penetrate the soil and help beans to develop, said Stanislas Koffi, head of the SCAT farmers’ cooperative in Tahe, southwestern Ivory Coast.
“The current weather is making farmers worried,” said Bernard Nguessan, who has been farming cocoa for 40 years in Gabiadji, southwestern Ivory Coast. “We haven’t had rains. Cocoa leaves are dry and we see few pods, about five or six, while last year we saw lots because of good weather conditions.”
Prices have fallen 7 per cent since the peak to 2,083 pounds a ton by 4:07 p.m. in London as bean processing, an indication of demand, fell in Asia and North America and was little changed in Europe in the second quarter.
Global chocolate confectionery sales fell 2.1 percent from September to April, Barry Callebaut said last month.
“On the demand side, there is no evidence to show that it is anything other than pretty poor,” Parkman said by phone Aug. 10. “If you put prices into context over the past few years, we’ve got relatively high prices now for cocoa.”
Rabobank International lowered its cocoa crop forecast for Ivory Coast by 50,000 tons to 1.7 million tons for next season, citing dry weather. Production in Ghana will be 7.8 per cent less than previously estimated, the bank said in a report Thursday.
El Nino reduces global cocoa production by an average 2.4 per cent, with Ecuador being the most affected country, according to a study by the International Cocoa Organization. In West Africa, El Nino causes output to decline by about 2 per cent in Ivory Coast and by 1.7 per cent in Ghana.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
