Ghana produces biggest cocoa crop in six years

Ghana has recorded its biggest cocoa harvest in six years, Bloomberg reports, after favourable weather conditions boosted output in the world’s second-biggest grower.

Graded and sealed deliveries since the beginning of the season in October reached 909,493 metric tons by July 27, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. That is the biggest since the 1,012,839 ton harvest for the whole of the 2010-11 season and compares with 778,043 tons produced in the 2015-16 crop when severe desert winds damaged crops and affected rainfall.

In the Bloomberg’s report, certified purchases for the first seven weeks of the so-called light crop, the smaller of the two annual harvests which started June 8, totaled 40,083 tons, said the people. Purchases for the main crop, which ended May 25, totaled 869,410 tons, said the people.

Noah Amenyah, a spokesman for the regulator, declined to comment when contacted by phone, Bloomberg reports.

The output of the beans in Ghana and neighbouring Ivory Coast, the top producer, has benefited from sufficient rains and a mild Harmattan — winds from the Sahara that bring dry weather and coolness to West Africa’s cocoa growing regions from December to February. Forecasts for a global oversupply have caused London prices to drop by more than a third in the past year.

Ivory Coast’s regulator estimated that 70,000 tons of the countries beans will be smuggled to Ghana before the end of the season in September as farmers seek to benefit from higher minimum producer prices, a person familiar said July 4.