Farmers in Ivory Coast said their cocoa crop is healthy but needs more sunlight

Farmers reported Monday that despite ongoing cold weather in most of Ivory Coast’s major cocoa districts, light rainfall had benefited the October–March main crop.

The world’s leading cocoa producer, Ivory Coast, is currently experiencing its rainy season, which technically lasts from April to mid-November.

With many huge, almost ripe pods on trees, farmers indicate that pod growth is satisfactory. They also add that the next major crop is growing well thanks to light rainfall and healthy soil moisture.

Growers said they expect more sun and enough rainfall in early September to help the harvest, but they did not report any crop damage.

According to them, harvesting has started sporadically on a few plantations, and starting in September, supply should gradually increase.

“For now, everything is good. We need lots of sunshine, but we’ll lose if it rains a lot in September,” Ernest Alleba, who farms close to Soubre in the west, said. Last week, there was 0.1 millimeters of rain, 13.2 mm less than the five-year average.

In the eastern region of Abengourou, where rains were below average, the southern region of Agboville, where no rain fell last week, and the southern region of Divo, where no rain fell last week, farmers said that the crop was ripening well and that they anticipated abundant harvests from October.

Farmers in the central areas of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, as well as in the center-western region of Daloa, where the rainfall was significantly below average, expressed satisfaction with the crop’s strength from the modest rainfall, but claimed that more sunshine would enhance growing conditions.

Ghislain Aka, a farmer in Daloa, commented, “If the sun comes out well, the trees will produce well and the pods will form well.” Last week’s rainfall of 3.3 mm was 19.5 mm less than the five-year normal.

The average temperature per week varied between 23.9 and 26.6 degrees Celsius.