Ivory Coast's cocoa arrivals at the port up 8 pct

Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast totalled around 783,000 tonnes by Dec. 25 since the start of the season on Oct. 1, exporters estimated on Tuesday.

This is up 8.15 percent from the 724,000 tonnes over the same period of the previous season.

Exporters estimated that about 83,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to ports from Dec. 19-25.

Data shows 46,000 tonnes arrived in Abidjan and 37,000 tonnes to San Pedro – up from a combined total of 54,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

Ivory Coast is the world’s biggest cocoa producer.

In an effort to boost more production, the west African nation raised in September the price paid to cocoa farmers by 10 per cent.

Growers are now getting get a minimum 1,100 CFA francs ($1.86) for every kilogram of cocoa delivered to the port.

That’s up from 1,000 CFA francs last season. The main crop runs from October to March.