(Ecofin Agency) - In Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa exporters are struggling to cope with the impact of decline in cocoa output. Indeed, less than a month before the end of the 2017-18 cocoa main season, the volume of cocoa they shipped was not sufficient to fulfill their contracts.  

“We received 140, 000 tons (ed: of cocoa) in February against 175,000 tons last year and given the current conditions, we are expecting to receive just 70,000 tons in March compared with the 124,000 tons a year before,” the manager of a European export company who requested anonymity told Reuters.

This decrease is due to a forecasted decline by 12% during the ongoing season (to stand at 1.32 million tons) due to bad weather and the outbreak of brown rots in some production areas since December.

“We all thought that this year’s production will be the same as last year’s but things seem not to go that way,” the source said.

Let’s note that nearly 75% of the cocoa season’s output is produced during the main season.

Espoir Olodo