* Ghana cocoa purchases up 42.6 percent for the year
* Purchases already near previous season target
* Next season output could reach 900,000 tonnes
(Adds details, quotes including on syndicated loan plans)
By Kwasi Kpodo
ACCRA, March 29 (Reuters) - Cocoa output from Ghana, the world's second-largest grower of the key ingredient in chocolate, is running nearly 43 percent higher than in the last season, according to official data released on Tuesday.
The boost could ease the impact of supply disruptions from top grower Ivory Coast, where a post-election standoff has triggered fighting between the forces of two claimants for the presidency.
Declared purchases by private cocoa buyers to Ghana's industry regulator Cocobod -- the best indication of output from the West African state -- reached 734,150 tonnes by March 17 from the start of the season in October.
That is up 42.6 percent over the same period last year and also well above the roughly 632,000 tonnes produced during the full 2009-10 season, the data from Cocobod showed.
Cocobod said this month it had raised its target for full-season purchases to a record 850,000 tonnes from 750,000, citing favourable weather and improved husbandry.
Analysts have said the escalating conflict in Ivory Coast could pad the Ghanaian figures by spurring massive cross-border smuggling, though Ghanaian officials have said they have seen only limited volumes of smuggled beans so far. Ghana is hoping to further raise its cocoa production to 1 million tonnes per year by the 2012-13 season and may be able to hit between 850,000-900,000 tonnes during the 2011-12 season, Cocobod Deputy Chief Executive Yaw Adu-Ampomah said on Tuesday.
"We could get very close to the 1 million target," he said, adding that an official forecast for 2011-12 was not yet ready.
He said Cocobod expected to raise $2 billion through syndicated loans in September to fund next season's cocoa crop purchases.
Some 7,544 tonnes of purchases were recorded in Ghana during the week to March 17, the 24th of the 33-week main crop, according to the Cocobod data, marking a decline from 11,917 tonnes the week before.
Increased output from Ghana could help offset supply losses from Ivory Coast, which have raised fears of tight supply and have pushed up cocoa futures prices.
Cocoa arrivals to Ivory Coast's ports have ground to a virtual halt due to an export ban, while traders and farmers complain that rising stockpiles in warehouses there are at risk of rotting. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Jane Baird)