(Ecofin Agency) - The road network leading to the San Pedro port, Cote d’Ivoire’s second largest port after Abidjan’s and main point from which cocoa is exported, is back online, Reuters reported citing sources from the cabinet of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

The roads reopen after a week-long closure caused by heavy rains that damaged the main axis connecting the Soubre region in the West, at the center of the cocoa belt, to San Pedro. The rains also damaged the Baba bridge which connects San Pedro to Tabou in the West also.

According to some exporters interviewed by Reuters, due to the road's inaccessibility, only 7,000 tons of cocoa arrived at the port, its lowest level this season.

Let’s recall that at the end of the 2016-17 season, the ports of San Pedro and Abidjan received 1,403,000 tons of brown gold, thus 15% more the previous season.

Espoir Olodo