Ghana 2012/13 cocoa crop seen down 5% - COCOBOD

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Created on Friday, 14 September 2012 00:00

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Ghana 2012/13 cocoa crop seen down 5% - COCOBOD

Ghana's cocoa industry regulator Cocobod expects to purchase 800,000 tonnes during the coming 2012/13 crop year, down more than five percent from this season because of unfavourable weather, it said on Thursday

The gloomy outlook from the world's second-largest grower of the main ingredient in chocolate could feed into worries of a global deficit this year, a factor that pushed world cocoa prices to 10-month highs this month.

"Our target is to buy about 800,000 tonnes in the coming season, both main and light (crops)," Cocobod spokesman Noah Amenyah said.

Ghana produced a record one million tonnes of cocoa last year, buoyed by good weather and improved farming techniques, but has seen output slip to about 850,000 tonnes this year.

Production in Ivory Coast, the world's top grower, and Cameroon has also come down this season, but the region - which accounts for more than two thirds of world output - is expected to post an overall modest increase during the 2012/13 season.

Amenyah said that, generally, a lot of cocoa was planted but crop development was hampered by the lack of adequate rains earlier this year.

On Wednesday, Cocobod signed a syndicated loan totalling $1.5 billion with 31 international banks for the new season's crop purchases. The banks included Barclays, Standard Chartered and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Ghana runs a two-cycle cocoa season consisting of the October-June main crop harvest, which is mainly exported, and an 11-week light crop, which is discounted to local grinders.

A Cocobod official told Reuters on Thursday that there were plans to close the current light crop this week, after nine weeks of purchases, because some farmers had started delivering the new season's harvest.

Purchases for this year's light crop, which began mid-July, reached 51,000 tonnes at August 30.

From: Reuters