(Ecofin Agency) - Abundant rain in Côte d’Ivoire last week are expected to boost yield during the 2017-18 cocoa mid-crop. Reuters reported that rainfall exceeded the five-year average in Daloa (which provides a quarter of national output) and in the heart of the cocoa belt in Soubre, reaching 67.9 mm and 67.2 mm, respectively. 

“We are going to finish the mid-crop well. Everything is green and the trees are doing well. From July we will begin to prepare for the (ed: 2018-19) main crop,” said Raphael Kouamé, a farmer at Daloa.

According to Lazare Ake, a farmer from Soubre, “there is good sun and rain, that’s what the cocoa trees want. There are enough pods on the trees. This time is good for them”.

For the record, Icco’s latest monthly cocoa bulletin showed that the beans’ shipments reached 1.74 million tons through June 12, since the season begun last October. Let’s note that world cocoa output is forecasted to fall by 3.3% to 4.58 million tons in 2017/2018. 

Espoir Olodo