Harmattan Threatens Ghana's and Ivory Coast Cocoa

The Harmattan could dry up cocoa seedlings, a situation that portends poor production for the world's two largest cocoa producers, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

"The winds could dry up the young flowers on the cocoa trees and the flowers may turn yellow and fall," said Antoine Koffi Kouassi, an independent meteorologist who spoke to Bloomberg by phone from Abidjan.

"They may have a negative impact on the fruiting period and hurt the mid-crop," he said, in reference to the smaller of two annual harvests that typically starts around April in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa grower. The francophone country accounts for almost 40 percent of global cocoa production.

Charles York, the principal meteorologist at the Ghana Meteorological Agency also told Bloomberg that the dry weather has been "very severe from the onset and could abort budding cocoa pods."

The winds bring dry and unseasonable cool weather to West Africa, with crops including cocoa potentially being damaged as rains usually fall below average. Cocoa prices, already up 17 percent this year, could gain a further boost from Harmattan winds as production could be short of demand.

Cocoa, already this year's best-performing commodity in the Standard & Poor's index of 24 raw materials, rose 0.1 percent to $3,387 a metric ton on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange by 8:43 a.m. in New York. The winds, which could knock off flowers that develop into cocoa pods, will add to woes in Ghana, where farmers harvested the smallest crop in five years in the 2014-15 season ended in September.