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ABIDJAN, Oct 10 (Reuters) — Reduced downpours and sunny spells in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions last week could prevent the spread of disease and improve growing conditions for the October-to-March main crop, farmers said on Monday.
The world’s top cocoa producer is at approaching the end of its rainy season, which runs from April to mid-November, when abundant and often heavy rains can sometimes cause black pod disease.
Farmers across the country said sunny intervals and less rain after two weeks of heavy downpours was making it easier to dry main crop beans, keeping them healthy and improving quality.
They expected main crop harvests to start in November.
Rains were below average in the western regions of Soubre and Man, in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, and in the eastern region of Abengourou.
Farmers there said they expected abundant main crop yields if the weather remained clement until mid-November.
«There is less black pod disease because the sun is out. If the weather continues to be good for another month we will have more cocoa from this year’s main crop than during the last season,» said Paul Yoman, who farms near Soubre, where 10.6 millimetres (mm) of rain fell last week, 13.2 mm below the five-year average.
Rains were also below average in the centre-western region of Daloa and in the in central region of Yamoussoukro.
«If it continues to rain until the end of the month there will be plenty of (cocoa bean) deliveries after January,» said Esmel Konan, who farms near Daloa, where 11.7 mm fell last week, 16.4 mm below the average.
In the central region of Bongouanou, where rains were above average, farmers said the weather would still boost crops.
Several cocoa cooperatives said they had already handled a few bags of cocoa but that the new marketing season was starting slowly, with fewer purchases compared to the same period last year.
Occasional buyers were paying the new guaranteed farmgate price of 900 CFA francs ($1.33) per kilogramme but volumes purchased were low, the cooperatives added.
Average temperatures ranged from 25.5 to 27.3 degrees Celsius degrees last week.($1 = 677.3900 CFA francs) (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly Editing by Sofia Christensen and David Evans)