Squirrels appeared to be making the situation worse by grabbing cocoa bean pods and eating them. But those raids had an unexpected benefit - cocoa seeds were spread all over the farm. "All the ...

Traditionally, cocoa beans are fermented on the farm where they were grown. Marieke van der Velden Cocoa pods have to be split to extract the beans which are then fermented The cocoa pods are ...

Ivory Coast expects to record one of the worst mid-crop cocoa harvests of the last 15 years this season with production seen ...

Rains were scarce in most of top grower Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions last week and more are needed to boost the ...

The beans are then removed from the pods with their surrounding pulp. Workers fill sacks with cocoa beans in Kahin village at the edge of the Scio forest reserve in Duekoue, Ivory Coast.

or young pods, withering. Cocoa bean supplies at exchange certified stockpiles continued to dwindle. In other agricultural markets, soybeans climbed as much as 1.5% before erasing gains.

The Harmattan wind, which usually sweeps in from the Sahara desert between December and March, can dry the soil and harm cocoa pods ... yield and the quality of beans from February.