Dry weather threatens Ivory Coast cocoa crop, farmers say

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - No rain fell last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions and farmers said on Monday that the dry weather could damage bean quality and tighten supply from February.  

The world's top cocoa producer is in the dry season that runs from mid-November to March, when rainfall is low.

Farmers said there were enough pods on trees to be harvested in January, but from February the October-to-March main crop would start to tail off.

They said they will start monitoring the development of the April-to-September mid-crop from January.

Good rains are needed to trigger more flowering and to help them turn into small pods for a strong start of the mid-crop in April, farmers added.

    In the west-central region of Daloa and in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, which had no rainfall last week, farmers said they were concerned by the weather.

"We didn't get a single drop of rain. It's not good for the end of the main crop and the beginning of the mid-crop," said Faustin Konan, who farms near Daloa, where no rain fell last week, which is 3 millimetres (mm) below the five-year average.

    Farmers in those regions said the intensity of the dry Harmattan wind had fallen compared with the previous week.

The Harmattan wind, which usually sweeps in from the Sahara desert between December and March, can dry the soil and harm cocoa pods, making them smaller.

    In the western region of Soubre, in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where it didn't rain last week, farmers said if plantations received a good rainfall every 10 days in January, it could improve the yield and the quality of beans from February.

"The weather is very hot, so we need well-distributed rainfall in January for trees to produce well," said Kouassi Kouame, who farms near Soubre, where 0 mm fell last week, 5.7 mm above the five-year average.

Average temperatures across the West African country last week ranged from 26 to 28.2 degrees Celsius.

(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian and Susan Fenton)