ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (Reuters) — A worse than anticipated Harmattan weather phenomenon has damaged trees in Ivory Coast’s main cocoa growing regions, raising fears it could curtail production of the country’s main crop.
The Harmattan wind blows in from the Sahara every year during Ivory Coast’s November-to-March dry season, but farmers say the effects have been particularly severe this year.
Cocoa arrivals in Ivory Coast and purchases in No. 2 producer Ghana are already lagging behind the levels of last year’s bumper crop, and exporters fear things could get worse.
“The crop is going to tail off very, very rapidly. The Harmattan has the ability to spoil a crop,” said an exporter based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city and one of its two ports.
