ABIDJAN, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Rain was below average last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions, although heavy rain in some parts raised concerns of disease, farmers said on Monday.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season which runs from April to mid-November. The 2023/24 cocoa season will start with the main crop harvest on Oct. 1.
The West African nation's Cocoa and Coffee Council (CCC) regulator has closed its cocoa bean contract sales for the 2023/24 season at 1.4 million tonnes, down from 1.7 million tonnes in the previous season.
Farmers said there was a good mix of large, average and small-sized pods on trees to be harvested from October until January.
"We don't have problems. Lots of ripe pods are appearing more and more on the trees. We will have lots of cocoa to sell in October," said Firmin Dagou, who farms near the western region of Soubre, where 2.7 millimetres (mm) of rain fell last week, 14.2 mm below the five-year average.
Similar comments were reported in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where farmers said they expected the harvest to jump sharply from mid-October.
In the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rainfall was well above the average, farmers said they feared the high moisture levels could trigger plant disease, and that more sun was needed for the pods to develop well.
"We don't need so much rain at the moment. We need more sun to avoid the risk of disease," said Rene Allangba, who farms in the central region of Yamoussoukro, where 56.7 mm of rain fell last week, 35.1 mm above the average.
Rainfall was below the average in the centre-western region of Daloa, but farmers there said growing conditions were good.
Average temperatures ranged from 24.8 to 26.5 degrees Celsius in Ivory Coast last week. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Sharon Singleton)
