SAO PAULO, March 23, 2011 - Brazil's main cocoa state Bahia has gathered the biggest main crop harvest since 1996/97, with favorable weather and better husbandry reducing diseasedamage, local cocoa analyst Thomas Hartmann said on Wednesday.
He said the October-April main crop in the state, had now surpassed 1.2 million 60-kg bags or 72,000 tonnes. The final output figure will continue to rise with another six weeks togo until the end of the season.
"This is the largest main crop since 1996/97. That is the time when production started to drop off sharply because ofwitch's broom," said Hartmann, referring to the fungal diseasethat arrived in the 1990s and still blights Bahia's cocoa.
Brazil now ranks sixth among the world's cocoa growers butwas No. 2 until as recently as the 1990s when the fungal disease took hold.
Total Brazilian cocoa arrivals, including imports, reached 3.9 million 60-kg bags from May 1, 2010 to March 20, up 13percent from the same week of last season, data from the BahiaCommercial Association showed.
Arrivals data for the week in the table below were inflated by some cocoa delivered in the previous week but not registered until days later because of the Carnival holiday then.
Farm gate prices in Bahia staged a partial recovery to83-84.50 reais ($49.90-$50.84) per 15-kg arroba this Wednesday,equivalent to $3,330-$3,390 per tonne after having dropped to a low of 80-81.------
