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ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Cocoa farmers in the world's top-producing country Ivory Coast warn insufficient rainfall could hurt both the quality and size of the April-to-September mid-crop.
Farmers said they feared that beans maturing in time for next month's market would be small and poor quality compared to last year and warned of a shortage of supply from July to mid-August as the consequences of dry weather persist.
Ivory Coast is now in its rainy season, which officially runs from April to mid-November, but so far rainfall has been scarce, and concern is growing.
Most farmers in central regions said they were worried as plantations had not yet received enough moisture in the crucial month of April to help beans reach market-ready size and quality.
They are hoping for heavy rains from next week to help both young pods, known as cherelles, and mature pods, which could contribute to a strong finish to the mid-crop between mid-August and late September.
In the centre-western region of Daloa, and in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains have been below average, farmers said they no longer thought the mid-crop would be as long and as large as last season. They also don't expect to handle significant volumes of beans from July.
"The heavy rains are slow in coming. The mid-crop will not be long this year, and there will be quality problems," said Albert N'Zue, who farms near Daloa, where 14.1 millimetres of rain fell last week, 7.5 mm below the five-year average.
In the western region of Soubre, the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where rains were also below average, farmers said harvesting for the mid-crop would start to pick up next week, and abundant supply would leave the bush from May.
They added that buyers were still asking for large amounts of beans, but the offer was weak at the moment.
The weekly average temperature ranged from 27.6 to 31.2 degrees Celsius (81.7 to 88.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly. Editing by Ayen Deng Bior and Mark Potter)
