Ivory Coast holds cocoa mid-crop farmgate price at 825 CFA francs/kg

Ivory Coast, the world?s top cocoa grower, maintained the guaranteed price it pays farmers at 825 CFA francs ($1.40) per kilogramme for the 2019/20 mid-crop, the country's cocoa regulator announced on Monday.

The mid-crop harvest, which begins on April 1 and ends on Sept. 30, makes up about 30% of national output, which is estimated at 2.2 million tonnes.

According to exporters and pod counters, this year the intermediate harvest should be bad because of the dry weather conditions that the country has seen since December.

They estimate production at 350,000 to 400,000 tonnes this year compared to 520,000 tonnes last year.

($1 = 589.0000 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Editing by Juliette Jabkhiro, Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)