Dry weather at key stages of the harvest last year, combined with ongoing instability in the world's top cocoa producer, has led some exporters to cut their estimates for the main crop (October-March), after record harvests in the past two seasons.
However, farmers and analysts in the West African country said there was as yet no reason to worry about the mid-crop (April-September), which usually yields some 200,000 tonnes of cocoa but has totalled 300,000 tonnes in 2002/03 and 2003/04.
"Cocoa trees can survive up to three months with little water," said Alexi Assiri, a researcher at the National Centre for Agronomic Research in the south-western town of Gagnoa.
Gervais Sery, a farmer in Gagnoa, said he was hopeful because he could see cherelles and young pods growing on the trees. "If in the next few weeks there is enough rain we can expect a good mid-crop," he said.
Further west in the area around Daloa, which produces around a quarter of Ivory Coast's harvest, farmers were also upbeat even as they said that regular rains were needed from now on to help the young flowers and pods develop.
"But we now need at least one good rain a week until April to support the mid-crop," he said.