Ivory Coast and Ghana Cocoa Areas Forecast to Get Rains

Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s largest cocoa producers, will get rains over the next seven days, potentially helping pod development, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Most areas of top grower Ivory Coast will get at least 40 millimeters (1.57 inches) of rain through June 13, while the same level of precipitation is forecast for coastal areas of second-ranking Ghana, data on the NOAA website today show. Northeastern Ivory Coast and most areas in Ghana will get about 20 millimeters, according to the data.

Rains may help to further improve the Ivorian mid-crop, the smaller of two annual harvests that usually starts in April. Dry weather earlier this year delayed harvesting there, according to the International Cocoa Organization in London. The mid-crop has already started, the cocoa group added.

Ivorian farmers will harvest 370,000 metric tons of cocoa during the mid-crop period, the ICCO said on May 20. That compares with a February forecast of 350,000 tons. Ghana and Ivory Coast accounted for 69 percent of total global cocoa production last season, the ICCO estimates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at Ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.