ABIDJAN, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Above average rains in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions last week helped strengthen the development of small and average pods of the October-to-March main crop, farmers said on Monday, although in some regions heavy rainfall was preventing beans from drying properly.
The world's top cocoa producer is in its rainy season, which runs officially from April to mid-November.
Harvesting was picking up and more trucks were loading beans in villages, farmers said, adding that most of the main crop would leave the bush from mid-November to late January.
Plenty of small pods were appearing on trees, said farmers from the centre-western region of Daloa and the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were above average. They added that the harvest will be abundant in February and March if it continues to rain until late November.
"We're starting to get a lot of cocoa and the conditions are being put in place for a long and abundant (main crop) season," said Benjamin Dje, a farmer on the outskirts of Daloa, where 30.9 millimetres (mm) fell last week, 7.7 mm above the five-year average.
In some other regions, however, the rain risked affecting quality, farmers said.
In the western region of Soubre, in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where rainfall was also above average, farmers warned that weather conditions were not allowing cocoa beans to dry properly.
"It rains regularly. It's hard to get the cocoa out. When it comes out, it's mouldy," said Eugene Kassi, who farms near Abengourou, where 56.8 mm fell last week, 25 mm above the average.
Ivory Coast's average temperatures ranged from 26.5 to 28.7 degrees Celsius last week. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian and Susan Fenton)
