While the rains are favoring the freshness and size of cocoa pods in the main cocoa region of the South-West province, farmers and traders there said, they are hastening the mid-crop production in the second region of the Center province.
The South-West province accounts for at least half of Cameroon's cocoa output on year, closely followed by the Center province where 30%-35% of the country's annual cocoa comes, according to government and industrial data.
Unlike the South-West province, which receives extended rainfall yearly, the Center province has had inconsistent rainfall in recent years, resulting in shortages and excessively dry weather that orchestrated the killing of cocoa plants there, according to farmers and traders.
"This seems to be one of the best mid-crop periods we shall be witnessing. Not only did the rains come earlier in February, instead of March/April as has been the case in the last four years, we had early and reliable rains which is keeping our farms fresh with healthy flowers, pods and leaves, we're already harvesting good cocoa beans for the mid-crop," said Joseph Nde who manages quality for the Cameroon Marketing Company, or Camaco, the South-West province's leading cocoa growing and marketing firm with at least 30,000 metric tons of cocoa at its control.
Officially, the mid-crop harvest constitutes about one- fifth of Cameroon's annual cocoa production of 179,239 metric tons in the 2006-07 season, up from 164,301 tons produced in the preceding season, according to industrial and government data.
-By Emmanuel Tumanjong, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +237-7773-1930; tnuel@yahoo.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-11-08 1627ET
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