Ghana lifts forecast for 2010-11 cocoa harvest by 14%

Ghana, the world’s second biggest cocoa producer, increased its projected harvest for the 2010-11 season by 14 percent to 800,000 metric tons, said Tony Fofie, chief executive officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The boost comes from an “increase in yield from very good rainfall and some of the programs we’ve put in place,” Fofie said in a phone interview from the capital, Accra, today.

Fofie said in September that the board, known as Cocobod, would provide farmers with more fungicide spray to control black pod rot disease and boost yields by increasing fertilizer usage. The board also increased the price it pays farmers by a third to 3,200 cedis ($2,162) a ton in an effort to increase production and discourage smuggling to neighboring Ivory Coast, where prices were higher.

The country produced about 635,000 tons of cocoa last year and lost an estimated 100,000 tons due to smuggling, Fofie said on Sept. 28.