Ivory Coast's Main Cocoa Crop May Decline Because of Disease

By Pauline Bax

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, may harvest a smaller crop this year because of the spread of black-pod disease, according to the head of the nation's cocoa and coffee exchange.

The fungus spread in the West African country because of a lack of sunshine, said Angoua Edoukou, interim president of the Bourse du Café et du Cacao, by phone from the commercial capital, Abidjan. Signs of the disease are showing in growing regions including the southwestern zone of Soubre, the central area of Daloa and the border with neighboring Ghana.

``The information we are currently receiving from several cocoa-growing regions makes us think that because of black-pod rot, it will be difficult for this year's main crop to reach the quantity we had last year,'' Edoukou said.

A drop in cocoa supplies from the 1.07 million tons produced in the main harvest last year may raise cocoa prices and increase costs for candymakers Hershey Co. and Nestle SA. Cocoa futures in New York jumped 30 percent this year to $2,664 a metric ton, after falling $220, or 7.6 percent, yesterday on ICE Futures U.S., the former New York Board of Trade. Prices peaked at $3,275 on July 1.

Ivory Coast produces 37 percent of the world's cocoa, according to International Cocoa Organization statistics. The nation reaped an estimated 1.39 million metric tons of beans in the 2007-08 season, compared with 1.23 million tons a year earlier, the ICCO said.

Two Crops

Ivorian growers collect a larger main crop from October to March, while a smaller mid-crop is harvested from April to September. Last season's main crop totaled 1.07 million tons, according to BCC statistics.

The 2008-2009 main crop may not surpass 1 million metric tons because of the spread of black-pod rot, said a crop analyst who declined to be named because the estimate isn't public. The analyst recently completed a trip through Ivory Coast inspecting plantations.

Black pod is a fungus that causes cocoa pods to turn black and rot. The disease spreads during persistent wet, overcast days, according to the Web site of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

There are early signs of black pod almost everywhere, compared with last year, when the disease was mainly concentrated in the southwestern region of Soubre, said the analyst.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pauline Bax in Abidjan via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.