Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council is concerned a delayed start to the 2026/27 main cocoa crop could lead to port congestion as exporters rush to ship before stricter European Union deforestation rules take effect at the year-end, industry sources said.
The council, which is the industry regulator in the world’s biggest cocoa-producing country, said last week the country was ready for the new rules.
Two sources from the council and five exporters, however, said this week they expected congestion at the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro in November and December, adding storage capacity could be strained.
They said the main cocoa crop had been delayed by a combination of difficult weather conditions, insufficient farm maintenance and the strength of the mid-crop, which delayed development of the main crop. One source said the main crop would be delayed by eight to 10 weeks.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“With this looming delay, we will find ourselves having to export enormous quantities in a short period in December,” an executive at a European export company in Abidjan said.
One of the two cocoa council officials said the body would do everything possible to minimise the impact.
Even though the main season will begin on September 1, the sources said weekly arrivals were expected to stay below 15,000 metric tons in September and 25 000 tons in October.
Main-crop volumes should begin arriving in late October or early November and increase through December, they said.
The cocoa council expects total arrivals from the main crop, beginning from September and ending on February 28, 2027, to be no more than 1.4 million tons. Exporters forecast 1.4 million to 1.45 million metric tons.
About 900 000 tons of cocoa are expected to reach Ivorian ports between October and December 2026, compared with an updated 1.1 million tons in the same period in 2025. Typically, ports receive 800 000 to 1 million tons over those three months.
–Reuters–
