Accra, May 19 - Ghana's 2007/08 cocoa main crop is forecast at 634,000 tonnes, up by 8 percent from last season and higher than a previous 600,000-tonne projection by industry regulator Cocobod, the central bank chief said on Monday.
The forecast by Central Bank Governor Paul Acquah compared with 587,502 tonnes of cocoa purchased by Cocobod in the 2006/07 main crop.
The main crop in Ghana, the world's No. 2 cocoa grower, normally runs from October to May. This season's 33-week main crop is expected to close in the first week of June.
A source at Cocobod, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the 2007/08 crop year was progressing "extremely well" and could total 700,000 tonnes.
In a previous forecast for the season, the industry regulator had projected to buy at least 650,000 tonnes of cocoa by the close of the October-September whole crop year. That earlier projection included a main crop seen at 600,000 tonnes.
"The rains are the main indicators, and this year, it has been good for us and if this continues, we will hit 700,000 tonnes (for the whole harvest)," the Cocobod source said.
Acquah said cumulative cocoa purchases through the end of the first quarter of 2008 totalled 552,312 tonnes, up from 510,609 tonnes for the same period of the 2006/07 season.
At a news conference after a Monetary Policy Committee meeting on the performance of the economy, the central bank head said Ghana earned $401.5 million from cocoa exports in the first three months of this year.
This was higher than the $382.27 million earned during the same period in 2007, and compared with $221.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Ghana has set itself an ambitious target to harvest at least 1 million tonnes of cocoa in a season by 2010, mainly through increased use of fertilisers and adoption of high-yielding seeds, combined with improved farming methods.