Up to 20,000 tonnes of cocoa is rotting at Ivory Coast's ports and might not be sold as a wave of defaults by exporters has slowed buying, exporters and truckers told Reuters on Wednesday.
The top cocoa producer's Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) acknowledged earlier this month that some firms, having wrongly speculated that world cocoa prices would extend multi-year gains, had defaulted on export contracts.
Some bags have been stuck onboard trucks beneath the sun in Abidjan and San Pedro for up to three months, the sources said. Exporters are systematically making quality checks and many of the beans have failed, the sources said.
Usually trucks are unloaded in ports within two or three days of arriving.
"The level of moisture is so high that the beans have become acidic and require too much treatment and we don't have the time or the money," said the director of an international exporter who asked not to be named.
A director at another firm said that 16 of 19 truckloads of beans tested had to be rejected.
The dip in purchases this year comes in what is expected to be a record season of nearly 2 million tonnes due to good weather.
As well as the waste in ports, cocoa has also been left to rot on trees or abandoned in piles for want of buyers.
(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Emma Farge; editing by David Evans)