Blog & News

In January, we saw two major movements southwards of the ITF, which is a proxy for the southernmost reach of the harmattan. This intense harmattan activity was not expected, so we took this as an opportunity to check in with crop developments throughout the cocoa belt in West Africa and bring you...

Cacao fermentation is essential for the development of the final chocolate flavour and its aromas. Despite this process commonly being refered to as bean fermentation, what actually ferments is the white mucilaginous sugary pulp that surrounds the beans. The fermentation releases heat and creates...

The harmattan is a dry, northeasterly desert wind that blows from the Sahara. It sometimes reaches the African cocoa regions during the Northern Hemisphere winter, drying the plants and soil and hindering precipitation. If persistent, it can be devastating to the cocoa crops, affecting the...

The ITF has been lagging slightly behind its normal position throughout most of the past month, only catching up to it in late November. By the end of the month, the ITF was located right along its average position for this time of the year: near the northern borders of Ivory Coast and Ghana,...

The canopy has continued to improve this month, thanks to the already dense foliage that was produced before the summer, alongside the new leaf flushing seen these last three weeks.

 The late nature of the main crop profile means that there are more pods currently in development stage, which are...

The harmattan is a dry, northeasterly desert wind that blows from the Sahara. It sometimes reaches the African cocoa regions during the Northern Hemisphere winter, drying the plants and soil and hindering precipitation. If persistent, it can be devastating to the cocoa crops, affecting the...

The rainfalls during the little dry season allowed the pathogen responsible for black pod disease to survive in the plantations. Consequently, it was well positioned to promptly flare up when rains returned in late August. Furthermore, the warm and moist conditions that characterized September...

Over July and August the trees received a fair amount of water, allowing us to discount possible water stress during the little dry season. The canopy is confirmed as dense and strong almost everywhere. Flowering is reported below-average across Ghana but is still sufficient to hope for a decent...

In line with predictions, September has so far brought well above-average precipitations in Ghana, SW Nigeria and Ivory Coast, where rains had already resumed mid-August. With precipitations between 130 and 300 mm over the past 30 days, most of these cocoa regions have received more than double...

A very wet end of August helped rebuild this resilience throughout the cocoa belt, where most regions currently enjoy at least 1 month's worth of resilience. Most areas will see no negative effects even in the unlikely scenario where precipitations are 20% below-average over the next month. The...