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Business |
Frontier shares soar 29% on gold
assays
By VERONICA MANUK
THE country’s annual cocoa output has dropped 19%, earning only
K91 million from the export trade during the 12-month period to
March this year.
The Cocoa Market Report for the month of March revealed that
production during the period in review reached 15,138mt, down
19% from the previous cropping year.
Cocoa output for the first three months of this year was
7,251mt, down 14% as against the same period last year.
Chief executive officer Lauatu Tautea said the low output was
attributed to unfavourable weather condition.
He noted the decline was also partly attributed to surging
interest in other competing cash crops and the subsequent
replacement of neglected cocoa blocks with coffee and oil palm
crops in producing regions.
Mr Tautea said export earnings for the 2006/07 cocoa-year to
March was K91 million, down 13% or K14 million, from the same
period the previous year.
Export earning reached K47.5 million in the first quarter this
year, 2% lower compared to the previous year’s figure for the
same period.
Total export for the first three months of this year was
9,595mt, 11% lower than the same period in 2006, while export
for the 2007/2006 cocoa-year reached 19,234mt, 20% lower that
the same period in 2005/06.
The report said world production was forecast at 3.4 million
tonnes in 2006/07, 5% lower that the 2005/06 figure of 3.592
million tonnes.
The drop in world output was due to unfavourable weather
condition including El Nino that developed in the tropical
Pacific, leading to drier conditions in Malaysia and Indonesia
and wetter condition in Brazil.
 
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