Cocoa output down 16.2%

Ghana's cocoa production may not exceed 620,000 tonnes in the crop year ending September 2007 because of dry weather, Issac Osei, chief executive of Ghana Cocoa Board, told Reuters on Thursday.

"It's not more than 620,000 tonnes. That's the maximum," Osei said on the sidelines of an international cocoa conference on the island resort of Bali.

"Last year's was 740,000 tonnes. So we are losing about 120,000 tonnes. It has to do with the weather conditions, the lack of rains. The prognosis is not good for the year," he said.

Dry weather from late 2006 until the first few months of 2007 has hit cocoa crop in West Africa, where Ghana is the world's second-largest producer after Ivory Coast. West African crop years run mostly from October to September.

Fears of tight global supply as well as robust demand for beans have pushed up the futures markets in New York and London to multi-year highs.

London cocoa futures traded very close to Tuesday's four-year high of 1,104 pounds, reaching a session peak of 1,102 pounds on Wednesday. LIFFE's September contract ended down 2 pounds at 1,097 pounds.

When asked if Ghana expected a rebound in output in the next 2007/2008 crop year, Osei said: "I would not make any comments now."

Executive director of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), Jan Vingerhoets, told Reuters on Wednesday he expected global cocoa output to recover to 3.8 million tonnes in 2007/08 from 3.45 million tonnes in the current year on expectations of better weather conditions in producing countries.