Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Hi Doc:
Another hoax, let's hope. Sue
Ivory Coast cocoa expert dismisses disease scare
ABIDJAN, May 7 (Reuters) - Rumours of imminent widescale destruction of
cocoa crops in the
world's largest producer Ivory Coast by a tough strain of blackpod
disease were dismissed on
Thursday as scaremongering by a leading London-based crop expert.
``It's total and utter rubbish,'' said Robert Fish of London-based crop
analysts PCR Limited when
asked if the world's chocaholics faced a lean future as cocoa disease
threatened Ivory Coast.
Talk of a nightmare cocoa supply scenario as the resistant blackpod
strain Phytopthera megakarya
edged towards Ivory Coast from Nigeria had been overplayed since an
April industry forum, he
said.
Concerns over a world cocoa supply meltdown had flared after general
concerns expressed at the
April four-day workshop on cocoa in Panama sponsored by Mars Inc hit
daily newspapers.
Industry giants at the forum, including British Cadbury Schweppes (quote
from Yahoo! UK & Ireland:
CBRY.L), Swiss Nestle (NESZn.S) and U.S. firm Mars Inc had discussed a
common strategies on
production, pests and disease as world production concentrates in fewer
countries.
Reports this week by British daily newspaper The Guardian and the
International Herald Tribune
alerted consumers to the disease -- with the Tribune quoting a British
Cadbury-Schweppes cocoa
expert as saying one million tonnes of Ivorian cocoa were threatened by
megakarya.
But a spokesman for U.S. chocolate firm Mars Inc, which has cocoa
experts scouring African trees
for clues to production, was quoted in an April 6 edtion of London's
Daily Telegraph as describing
the scare as a ``storm in an Easter egg.''
Blackpod is a common cocoa pod fungal disease brought on by prolonged
humidity, shade and
cool temperatures which has eaten heavily into Nigerian and Ghanaian
crops in the past.
But the deadly P. megakarya strain lurking on Ivory Coast's western
border with Ghana was
unlikely to cause more danger than a palmivora strain already stalking
Ivorian farms but which has
had a minimal impact compared to elsewhere.
``Either strain, it is not a significant problem for Ivory Coast,'' said
Fish, who has podcounters
permanently on the ground inspecting West Africa's cocoa farms. ``I do
not see megakarya as a
mega-threat there at all.
``People are talking as if it is camped along the border ready to attack
and take no prisoners,'' he
said.
A large Ivorian exporter told Reuters he suspected that fears of large
losses were being fanned in
the market to push up futures prices.
"I've heard nothing about it. It's rumour," he said.
Ghana and Ivory Coast account for around 55 percent of average world
production, running at
around 2.7 million tonnes, and although growers in Indonesia are
expanding farms, industry has
expressed fears of an over-concentration of production.
``Megakarya has for a long time been in Nigeria and now it is in western
Ghana,'' Fish told Reuters.
``Soon it will reach Ivory Coast, but the scare is a storm in a tea
cup.''
Ivorian farms were generally less shaded than in Ghana, cutting out one
condition for the onset of
blackpod.
Recently blistering temperatures approaching 40 Celsius also meant the
chances of disease were
small this year, Fish said.
The London-based International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) on Thursday
said that although
Ivorian 1997/98 (Oct-Sept) cocoa production had disappointed, Ghana's
exceeded hopes.
ICCO raised its season deficit forecast to 185,000 tonnes from 145,000
tonnes but crop experts
put that down to mainly non-disease effects such as a global El Nino
weather pattern which hit
Malaysia and Ecuador in 1997/98.
Brazil's output has been devastated by Witch's Broom disease but
blackpod, a distant cousin of
potato blight, is unrelated. Witch's Broom, if it ever reaches Africa,
would pose a very real threat of
crop destruction, crop experts say.
> I'll pay! I'll pay! Some things are sacred. But what's happening to the
> cacao crop, and why? The early news didn't say, and I had to get to work
> before the regular daily newscast came on.
> Doc
>
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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