SIAKON MEDIA

Cummulative cocoa purchases declared by private buyers to Ghana's industry regulator Cocobod, in the first four weeks of the main crop were 228,588 tonnes up, nearly 43 per cent on year, an industry  source has said.

Separately, the Cocobod Chief Executive, Tony Fofie, told Reuters that favourable weather conditions was raising hopes for a strong crop while higher prices for farmers had led to reduced smuggling of beans out of the world's number two producer.

Ghana's official cocoa purchases last year totalled 632,024 tonnes, down over 67,000 tonnes from the year before, due in part to beans being smuggled to neighbouring Cote d’ Ivoire. Cocobod has targeted purchases of 700,000 tonnes this year.

"We are having good rains now and this is having a positive impact on the crop," Fofie said, adding the smuggling of beans, believed by analysts to be as much as 100,000 tonnes last year, had been "drastically curtailed" this year.

He did not give an estimate on what the figure was now. The tally of purchases for the first four weeks of last year's main crop was 159,917 tonnes. Ghana is recording intermittent rains, especially in the middle and southern zones.

Fofie said current weather should favour the July-September light crop. "There are indications that we'll be seeing early flowering and could mature into pods within five months," he added. "From all indications from the field, this year's crops will be quite good.

If you go to the farms now, you'll see the signs." At the beginning of the 2010-11 season, Cocobod raised official cocoa prices in Ghana by a third to GH¢3,200  per tonne, up from GH¢2,400  per tonne during the 2009-10 season. .

Prices in Cote d’ Ivoire rose as buyers sought to stockpile beans ahead of an October 31 presidential election, but by November 4, the prices were still below those in Ghana, ranging from 930 to 960 CFA francs per kg.

 

 

Source: Reuters