Nigeria’s cocoa mid-crop signaling more production

Nigeria’s cocoa mid-crop is taking longer to complete and boosting prospects for production from the world’s fourth-largest grower of the beans. The smaller of two annual harvests is still progressing with few signs of damage from disease or bad weather, said Wale Owofemi of Olatunde International Ltd., a cocoa buying company based in Akure, Nigeria. The mid-crop usually ends in June with the larger main crop starting in October.

Nigeria’s production for 2013-14 will grow to 300,000 metric tons from 295,000 tons a year earlier, according to the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, which groups farmers, traders and processors. Cocoa exports in May jumped 38 percent to 4,461 tons from the previous month as favorable weather bolstered crop performance, according to the Federal Produce Inspective Service. The mid-crop will climb to 66,000 tons from 35,000 tons, the Akure-based Cocoa Development Intiative, a non-government organization that provides advice to farmers.

Rain is forecast for this month in cocoa growing areas in Nigeria followed by less moisture and sun in August that will benefit drying beans, Andrew Oniarah of the Meteorological Office in Lagos said in a phone interview. Ivory Coast is the biggest cocoa grower, followed by Ghana and Indonesia, according to the London-based International Cocoa Organisation.