* Ivorian exporters to start shipping cocoa by weekend
* Armed groups in bush mean some farmers afraid to harvest
(Adds industry regulator)
By Ange Aboa and Loucoumane Coulibaly
ABIDJAN, May 3 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast cocoa exports are likely to resume by Friday, but forecasts for its mid-crop harvest may be cut by a third from the expected 300,000 tonnes over security and logistics concerns in the hinterland.
Cocoa exporters said on Tuesday they were making final preparations to resume exports after resolving a row with the new government of president Alassane Ouattara last week over taxes. [ID:nLDE73R1RH]
Eric Koffi, director of operations at the industry regulator CGFCC, reaffirmed that Ivory Coast's customs had agreed that exporters could pay the so-called DUS export tax with cheques and preparations were underway for exports.
"Operations have resumed (at the port) since last week and the first exports will be done this week. Exporters are preparing their cargo already," Koffi told Reuters.
Nearly half a million tonnes of this season's harvest have been held up at the West African country's ports by a conflict, which lasted more than four months and only eased in April after the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo.
"Logically we should be loading our first batch of cocoa for Hamburg and Antwerp on Friday," a director at an export firm in Abidjan said, adding that exporters had to carry out quality controls and fumigation of the beans before loading.
"We have 5,000 tonnes in Abidjan and 3,000 tonnes in San Pedro for shipment this weekend," the director said.
A commercial agent for another cocoa export firm said most companies were focused on readying their stocks for export, even though administrative processes were causing some delays.
"Our first ship arrives on Saturday and the next on Monday. In all we will have five ships between Friday and Monday next week to load part of our stock in Abidjan," the agent said.
FEAR IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
But some exporters and farmers said logistics and security concerns in parts of the country -- and the fact that banks are not yet operational in all regions -- meant that only about 200,000 tonnes of cocoa from the April-October mid-crop harvest would reach ports this year.
"In principle, the mid-crop harvest was expected to be around 300,000 tonnes, but we expect that only two-thirds will at most make it to ports," said another commercial agent in one of the international cocoa export firms in Abidjan.
"Many exporters have decided to skip this harvest, and the farmers themselves are afraid to go into the fields because of armed men who are stealing or racketeering in the bush," the agent said.
Insecurity remains a major concern, particularly in the western cocoa growing areas, where hundreds of people were reportedly massacred in intercommunal violence during the recent fighting. "There is a lot of cocoa in the bush for the mid-crop harvest, but most farmers are afraid to go into their farms, said Francois Badiel, a cooperative manager in the western region of Gagnoa.
"This will reduce the volume of mid-crop because even middlemen (who buy from the farmers) do not want to venture into the bush with their trucks," he said.
Some farmers and cooperatives complained that armed groups in the farms have seized trucks and produce from farmers and are carrying out racketeering, said Attoungbre Kouame, a farmer and cooperative manager in the centre-western region of Daloa.
"There are farmers who have been robbed by men in military fatigues ... it is frightening and it has scared farmers from trying to get their beans from the bush," Kouame said. (Writing by Bate Felix; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Anthony Barker)
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