Cocoa growers full of beans after heavy rains
Heavy rains fell across most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa-growing regions last week, raising expectations of a strong harvest in June and July, farmers said yesterday. The world's top cocoa grower is now in its April-to-September mid-crop. Bean size is beginning to improve and harvesting is starting to pick up.In the western region of Soubre, in the heart of the West African nation's cocoa belt, an analyst reported 79mm of rainfall last week, compared with 18mm the previous week."The soil moisture level is very good right now. There are lots of small, well-formed pods, indicating harvesting will be abundant in June and July," said Salam Kone, who farms near Soubre.Bean size and quality deteriorated towards the end of this season's October-to-March main crop, leading to high rejection rates for beans arriving at the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro.However, farmers said better quality had reduced rejections.In the western region of Duekoue, farmers said a week of heavy rains would help crop development, but they complained that strong winds had damaged cocoa trees on some plantations...
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