Source: RTRS
ABIDJAN, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Top cocoa grower Ivory Coast's main crop is seen falling around 17% this season due to an El Nino-linked drought and reduced fertiliser and pesticide use, according to a Reuters survey of farmers, exporters, cooperatives and buyers.
The world's largest cocoa producer is in its rainy season but farmers told Reuters the weather had been persistently dry since July, hampering flower and pod development.
At the same time pesticide and fertiliser use has been reduced due to high prices, they added.
As a result, the exporters who spoke to Reuters saw cocoa production in the current 2026/27 main crop, running from September to February, at around 1.25 million metric tons compared with 1.5 million last season.
Last year's main crop ran from October to March, but Ivory Coast decided to start its season a month early this year.
Production this September had already fallen versus last September, when beans were available in stockpile for sale in October, the sources said, adding that even if it starts raining this month, the main harvest still will not exceed 1.4 million tons.
"It is a bit late now for the main crop. Even if it rains heavily ... it is the mid-crop that would benefit the most," said a pod counter who works for a French company.
If rains fail to arrive in October, output in the second half of the main crop could also be compromised.
"The biggest unknown right now is the mid-crop," said a director of a European export company based in Abidjan.
By this time last year, farmer Hubert Kouadio had already harvested seven 70-kg bags at his 5-hectare plot in the western town of Duekoue. "This year, I have not even had two bags," he said.
Antoine Kipre, who farms 3 hectares in the western region of Soubre, said he did not have any cocoa to harvest until November because all his pods were still green.
An Abidjan-based export company executive said he sees weekly cocoa arrivals at Ivorian ports at just 20,000 to 25,000 tons this month, compared to average weekly arrivals last October of around 71,300 tons.