"Everyone is hoping to have lots of cocoa. We now need heavy rains for the mid-crop yield to be very good," says Desire Yao, who farms near the west-central region of Daloa, where 9.6mm of rain fell last week, 10.8mm below the five-year average.
Similar comments were reported in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were below average. In those regions, farmers said they were happy with moisture levels.
In the western region of Soubre, in the southern region of Agboville and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where rains were well below average — and in the southern region of Divo, where rains were well above average — several growers were drying their first beans in good conditions due to sunny weather.
Farmers in those regions said a good mix of sun and rain from April would make way for plenty of big and average pods to ripen between May and June and raise supply availability.
"In a month's time, the harvest will be abundant. We'll have plenty of cocoa — Maybe even more than last season," said Kouassi Kouame, who farms near Soubre, where 10.7mm of rain fell last week, 6mm below the average.
The weekly average temperature ranged from 28 to 31.3°C.