Brazil imports Indonesian cocoa

Brazil imports Indonesian cocoa

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters): Brazil recently imported some 12,000 tons of Indonesian cocoa beans, its first cocoa purchase since October and likely to be the last for the current crop in the key state of Bahia, industry sources said Thursday.

Shortly before the Christmas holiday break, a vessel unloaded around 3,000 tons of Indonesian beans in the port of Ilheus, said an official from the Bahia Commercial Association.

"There's a lot of bureaucracy and it hasn't got through customs yet, which will probably happen late next week," said Thomas Hartmann. This was the reason why the imports had yet to appear on cocoa arrivals data for Bahia, he added.

"Since it (the cocoa) hasn't entered the warehouses, they haven't declared it yet," he told Reuters.

According to Association data, cumulative cocoa arrivals from May 1997 in Bahia from other nations reached 248,508 60-kg bags by Jan. 4, equivalent to 14,910 tons.

A second vessel carrying a further 9,000 tons of Indonesian cocoa had now docked in the port and would probably start to unload its cargo Thursday or Friday, he said.

Local news sources said the ship docked at Ilheus was the Liberian-flagged vessel Hopwell, which arrived at the port to be fumigated before the start of unloading.

All the cocoa imported by Brazil so far has come from Indonesia, the only producing country which is currently cleared by the Agriculture Ministry.

A supply shortage during the mid-crop, which runs from May to September, forced producers to authorize up to 15,000 tons of imports. The main cocoa crop runs from October to April.

Brazil last imported cocoa in October, Hartmann said. "That will probably be it for the current Bahia crop," he said.

Brazil, formerly the world's second largest cocoa producer, has seen its status eroded in recent years after the witch's broom fungus, for which no cure has yet been found, ravaged the crop in the key growing state of Bahia.

Many Bahia farmers chose to abandon the production of cocoa and deforested their land to use it to grow other crops, or sold it for cattle grazing. Brazil was then forced to import cocoa.

In October, the government cocoa institute Ceplac launched a project to build a "clonal garden" turning out varieties of cocoa which can resist witch's broom.