Ivorian cocoa farmers were upbeat after entering into an agreement with Ghana not to undersell the cocoa. But the farming community is now in the grip of another dilemma-the 2019—20 crop is afflicted with a disease known as black pod accompanied by swollen shoot- which can debilitate the crop.
That has forced the farmers and exporters to review downwards the production from 2.2 million tons in last year to a figure close to 2 million tons, which will be 5% less than the year ago production.  Farmers are worried about the likely fall in production since that it would affect the income. Some of the bulk buyers may use the disease as an alibi to cut the price. The black pod disease is caused by excessive rains and the swollen shoot is the after effect of a disease caused by a kind of virus. Both can greatly impair the crop, the past experience shows.
Always the month of December is a peak harvesting season for Cocoa, when the farmers are engaged in drying the cocoa beans. But this year around,, those who had visited the cocoa growing belts reported that the activities were slack and the farmers gloomy. The saving grace is the debilitating disease is limited only to some coca growing areas.    For instance, in the cocoa plantations of Daloa, Soubre, San Pedro and Issia, the crop seems to be better than last year’s and the farmers expect a good return for the produce in the event of the understanding between Ghana, another major cocoa producing country, not to undersell the produce.
Cocoa production profile is interesting. Ivory Coast tops the list of producers, which last year produced 30% of the world’s total production. Last year total crop was at 1,444,992 tons.  International chocolate manufacturers like Nestle and Cadbury source most of their produce from that area. The next door neighbor –Ghana-is the second largest producer and the production was pegged at 835,466 tons last year. The other African countries in the ranking are Nigeria, Uganda, Togo and Cameroon. Though the crop originated from South America and countries like Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Ecuador are producing the wonder beans, the crop is losing the sheen over there. In some parts of Asia, particularly in Indonesia and India, the crop is cultivated. Indonesia is the largest producer in the Asian region, with a production of 800,000 tons last year followed by India at a distant production of 13,000 tons.
