Ivory Coast farmers hope for more rain to boost cocoa harvest

Rains were mainly below average last week across most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions, and farmers said on Monday that more moisture was needed to boost the quality of beans for the March-to-August mid-crop.

Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season, which officially runs from April to mid-November.

Farmers that Reuters spoke to around the country said the weather wasn’t putting ​trees bearing a good mix of small, average, and large pods at risk. However, more ​rainfall was needed to boost the mid-crop.

Farmers said they were so ⁠far content with conditions and added that harvesting had started to pick up. Many ​pods would be reaped from cocoa trees between May and July, they said.

In the west-central region of Daloa and the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, rainfall was below average last week. However, farmers said the heat was helping beans that had already been harvested to dry out.

Farmers also said they expected more precipitation in the coming weeks because the sky was often cloudy.

“It’s very hot. The beans are well dried, but the ‌trees need ⁠enough rain for the rest of the mid-crop season,” said Albert N’Zue, who farms near Daloa, where 9.7 millimetres (mm) of rain fell last week, 11.9 mm below the five-year average.

In the western region of Soubre and in the eastern region ​of Abengourou, where rains ​were above average, ⁠and in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, where rains were below average, farmers said regular and abundant rains ​were needed to improve the quality and the size of ​beans growing ⁠inside cocoa pods that will be harvested in the coming weeks.

“We need plenty of steady rain to grow large, high-quality beans,” said Kouassi Kouame, who farms near Soubre, where ⁠28.6 mm ​of rain fell last week, 6.2 mm above ​the five-year average.

Weekly average temperatures across the Ivory Coast last week ranged from 29 to 33.2 degrees Celsius.

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