CRA: Weather in Cocoa Growing Areas to 10 Sep 2025

West Africa.  Average rain at CRA’s Veriground stations in Côte d’Ivoire has been increasing slowly, with increases similar to the lowest reported amount during the past five years of Veriground records. However, the average for the cocoa area hides the very skewed distribution of rain. Most rain has fallen in the northwest, that is, around Man and at the northern border with Mali. The average of rain reports from Veriground stations near Man was 200 mm during the latest 30 days. Reports for the latest 10 days from that area show already 100 mm. In the center west, the area along the border with Liberia and extending from about Guiglo southeastward to Gagnoa, then further south toward but not reaching the coast– all important cocoa areas – rain has been close to the national average. Across the reset of the Côte d’Ivoire cocoa area, rain has been very low.

In Ghana, following a period of moderately good rain during early-to-mid Aug, rain at Veriground stations slowed almost to nil during late Aug and has continued at low and sparse amounts during Sep. Those amounts that have fallen have been distributed much more widely than in Côte d’Ivoire. The greatest amounts were reported from the southern third of the cocoa area.

Charts that show rain at the mentioned regions of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are available at the Veriground website. CRA also maintains a map based on ERA5 satellite monitoring that shows the distribution of rain across all West Africa from eastern Liberia to Cameroon. The map shows that rain has diminished across the entire area except northwestern Côte d’Ivoire and eastern Nigeria beyond the main cocoa area. A comparison with 25 years of ERA5 history for Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana indicates that except in early-mid Aug 2025 when rain briefly matched the ERA5 history, average rain has been half of normal across both cocoa areas. Since the Aug peak, rain decreased while in the 25-year history average rain increased. For this season’s history, ERA5 data was available only to 20 Aug. CRA’s Veriground station reports indicate that recent rain amounts have been similar to ERA5 reports through 20 Aug. That is, all rain in Côte d’Ivoire has been concentrated in the northwest, and rain in Ghana, while distributed more evenly, has decreased.

There have been no changes in other cocoa areas.