Dry season in Ivory Coast triggers cocoa shortage fears, farmers say

A lack of rain in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions could delay the start of the April-to-September mid-crop, potentially leading to a shortage of beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, farmers said on Monday.

The world’s top cocoa producer is in the dry season that runs from mid-November to March when rains are scarce and poor, and farmers say it is very hot compared to last year.

Farmers said they no longer expected beans of good quality at the start of the mid-crop season in April as the soil moisture content was weak and the heat was drying leaves on trees.

They warned that if plantations don’t receive two abundant rains before the end of February, the mid-crop would start slowly with a possible shortage of beans in April.

Farmers from the country’s central regions said they were concerned about the development of the mid-crop harvest because some trees had started to show signs of weakness due to a prolonged lack of adequate rains.

“When you look at the foliage of some plantations, you think it’s swollen shoot disease (which reduces crop yields before killing trees). But it’s the heat and lack of rain that cause leaves to fall,” said Stephane M’Bra, who farms near the west-central region of Daloa.

No rain fell in Daloa last week, which is 5.5 millimetres (mm) below the five-year average.

Similar comments were reported in the central region of Bongouanou, which recorded 0.5 mm of rain last week, and in the central region of Yamoussoukro, where it did not rain.

In the western region of Soubre, which also had no rainfall last week, the southern region of Divo and eastern region of Abengourou, where rainfall was below average, and the southern region of Agboville, where rains were well above average, farmers said they remained confident that crops would develop well.

“Overall, it’s going well. We’re not worried at the moment,” said Andre Kokola, who farms near Agboville, where 11.9 mm of rain fell last week, 5 mm above the five-year average.

The weekly average temperature across Ivory Coast last week ranged from 28.7 to 30.8 degrees Celsius.