Ghana’s cocoa regulator announced Monday that it had secured a loan with international banks for $1.13 billion to fund purchases for the 2019 season, which begins later this month.

Every year, Ghana, the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, mostly requires loans from foreign banks to finance bean purchases. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer. About sixty per cent of the cocoa available around the globe comes from only two nations in West Africa.

Although it was much smaller than the $1.5 billion obtained the previous year, the loan that Cocobod announced Monday was oversubscribed by $130 million.

At the end of July, the legislature of Ghana had given its approval to a bigger loan of $1.3 billion.

The Cooperative Rabobank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the DZ Bank, the MUFG Bank, Natixis, Standard Chartered, and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) were the principal arrangers for the loan. The Ghana International Bank was also an arranger for the loan.

Analysts expect Ghana’s cocoa output to be significantly lower this year, coming in at 689,000 metric tons on September 1 compared to an earlier projection of 800,000 metric tons. Because of this, the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) has had to raise its forecasts for the worldwide cocoa shortage.

The announcement of the new guaranteed cocoa price Cocobod would pay farmers was to be made public on Saturday. However, it will now be on Tuesday after a meeting with stakeholders.