Ivory Coast expects cocoa production to reach between 2 and 2.1 million metric tons in the current 2025/26 season which runs through to the end of September, up 10.5% from last season, the head of the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) said.
That would be the first rise in output for the world’s largest cocoa producer in three seasons, after production fell sharply due to adverse weather, ageing plantations and the rapid spread of swollen shoot disease.
A Reuters poll of traders and analysts issued in March had a consensus forecast for the Ivory Coast cocoa crop to reach 1.8 million tons in 2025/26.
CCC Director Yves Brahima Kone told Reuters, in an interview conducted on Wednesday, that high cocoa prices over the past two seasons have enabled cocoa farmers to buy and use more fertiliser and improve how they manage their plantations, boosting output.
“We currently stand at just over 1.7 million tons as of May 11, in terms of cocoa arrivals at the two ports,” said Kone. “This is a positive trend when compared to the last two seasons.”
A Europe-based cocoa trader said large volumes of cocoa remain unsold in Ivory Coast.
“There is still so much cocoa on the ground, but (Ivorian exporters) did not want to (sell) before the market went up, plus farmers did not want to sell at the cheaper farmgate price,” the trader said.
Recent selling from Ivory Coast could make the size of the surplus more visible in European warehouses in the coming weeks, the trader added.
–Reuters–
