Ivory Coast slows sales of cocoa contracts due to production concerns, sources say

ABIDJAN, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), has reduced its sales of cocoa export contracts for the 2024/25 season by 40% in recent days due to worsening weather conditions which have caused production concerns, two CCC sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

Since October, the CCC and exporters have been worried about constant rains and floods that are affecting the development of flowers and small pods, and causing a fungal disease called brown rot. The poor weather conditions are unusual for this time of the season.

“Our agents in the 13 production regions are sending us reports, and we can see that the south-west, the west and now the east are regions where production is made difficult by these weather conditions – we don’t want to take any risks,” said one of the CCC sources.

According to several industry and CCC sources, export contract sales for the 2024/25 main crop stood at 1.2 million metric tons at the end of September, to which should be added 150,000 tons of 2023/24 contracts that have rolled over.

The industry was anticipating production of 1.5 million tons for the main crop, which runs from October to March, but this forecast was revised down at the end of October after heavy rains flooded Ivory Coast’s plantations.

Exporters said they had felt the slowdown in contract sales over the past few days and added that there were growing concerns about the level of cocoa arrivals between January and March of 2025.

The high volumes of arrivals in October and November mean that there is a risk of a sharp decline in either December or early January, they added.

“We asked for 25,000 tons for January-March with an interesting differential, but they only served us 8,000 tons,” said the director of an international export company based in Abidjan.

However, about 15 days ago, the firm was able to receive 20,000 tons for the same period, the director added.

“We note the cautiousness of the CCC in sales, but the concern we have is that we won’t be able to buy all the cocoa we want,” said the director of another European export company based in Abidjan.

A CCC official added that if the main crop production declines, priority will be given to grinders during the mid-crop. (Reporting by Ange Aboa; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian; editing by David Evans)

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