By George Mwangi

Special to Dow Jones Newswires


Ghana's suitable areas for cocoa production, mainly along the coast, are decreasing due to climate-change effects, the U.S Agriculture Department said late Wednesday.

The West African nation is experiencing changes in temperature, rainfall patterns, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and storms, the USDA said in its Ghana climate-change report.

West Africa in particular has been identified as a climate-change hotspot since the region is experiencing rapid population growth, at 2.8% a year, in an environment with shrinking natural resources, it said.

The report didn't provide the percentage decline in areas planted with cocoa and the period.

Ghana is the world's second-largest cocoa producer and exporter behind neighboring Ivory Coast, and the two countries account for more than two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply, it said.

In Ghana's cocoa marketing year beginning October 2022, production is expected to increase by 8.9% to 750,000 metric tons from 689,000 tons the prior year, mainly due to favorable rains, according to the country's cocoa board.


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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-09-23 1041ET