Ghana's Cocobod to buy more next season, seal $2 bln loan

Cocoa pod and beans

Ghana cocoa industry regulator Cocobod will buy at least 950,000 tonnes of cocoa in the 2014/15 crop year, which begins in October, up 5.5 percent on forecasts for the current harvest, according to a parliamentary document and an official.
Ghana, the world's No. 2 producer after Ivory Coast, will sign a syndicated loan of $2 billion from international banks in September to finance the purchases and related operations, James Avedzi, chairman of Parliament's finance Committee told Reuters.
The loan for the 2014/15 season was previously expected to be $1.8 billion. Cocobod is hoping to buy a cumulative 900,000 tonnes of cocoa in the current crop year which ends in September.
A Cocobod official told Reuters the loan amount was increased to accommodate a potentially bigger harvest, adding that purchases could hit as high as 1 million tonnes if weather conditions were good and policies like free fertilizer distribution at certain farms had the right impact.
"We believe we can produce more and even hit 1 million, if we get the right weather to complement the interventions," the source said, asking not to be named.
Ghana runs a two cycle cocoa year consisting of the October-June main crop which is mainly exported and the minor light crop harvest which is discounted to local processing firms.
Purchases so far declared in the current season were around 870,000 tonnes at the end of June, according to Cocobod data.Ȋ