Nigeria is to earn N428.6billion ($857.2million) from cocoa beans from its projected 340,163 metric tonnes output this year. This is after contributing about 41.6per cent to export earnings in the first quarter of 2022. Findings revealed that the amount is just 0.8per cent of the $100billion 2022 chocolate market.
According to a forecast by the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), of the amount, Ghana is expecting $2.03billion from its 883,652 tonnes, while Ivory Coast with 2.03million tonnes would generate $4.67billion this year from the beans.
The price of cocoa beans in Côte d’Ivoire is 900XOF/kg, which is equivalent to $1,364 per tonne; Ghana, 12,800 Cedis ($1,251) per tonne and Nigeria, certified cocoa is between N1.25 million and 1.3 million ($2,892) a metric tonne.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Abubakar, the country’s foreign earnings from cocoa was N122.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Abubakar, who was represented by the ministry’s South West Zonal Director, Omolara Abimbola- Oguntuyi, explained at the National Cocoa Festival in Akure, Ondo State, that it had become obvious that the country could not continue to rely on crude oil to develop the economy, going by the instability of oil prices in the face of Russian-Ukraine war. He stressed that cocoa production and marketing occupied a pre-eminent position in the recently launched National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy document (NATIP). The minister said: “If there is no production there will be nothing for farmers to take to the market.
Diversification is no longer a myth but a reality. “Cocoa as you know is Nigeria’s top agricultural export. In Q1’22, N122.89 billion was earned from the export of raw cocoa beans and cocoa products (National Bureau of Statistics and Analytics).
“It is the largest non-oil foreign exchange earner for the country, as well as providing sources of employment to millions of Nigerians as farmers, processors, licensed buying agents, marketers, and exporters.” It would be recalled that early in the year the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) had said that cocoa production would be increased from over 300,000 metric tonnes to 500,000 metric tonnes by 2024, adding that Nigeria would become the highest cocoa producer in West Africa in the next five years. Also, the National Chairman of CFAN, Comrade Adeola Adegoke, said in Akure during the free distribution of cocoa’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) handbook to smallholder farmers that the target would make the country produce the best quality cocoa beans in line with internationally acceptable best practices.
Adegoke, who spoke on standards among cocoa farmers, noted that the GAP handbook would enhance responsible use of pesticides, child labour eradication, deforestation, ecosystem and climate change among others. He explained: “The poor cocoa quality being experienced by our cocoa buyers and exporter which have degraded and, devalue the once preferred Nigeria cocoa beans at international markets is not acceptable any longer to us. “Our smallholder cocoa farm-ers must be guided and supported on responsible and acceptable international cocoa practices without any excuse.
CFAN commitment to increase Nigeria, cocoa production in conjunction with other value chain stakeholders from about 340,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes by 2024 and to be the highest cocoa producer in the year 2027 in West Africa with sustainable cocoa beans remains our core cocoa policy. “This ambition is anchored on improved cocoa variety, national cocoa farm irrigation, the improvements of the livelihood of our smallholder cocoa farmers via the collection of $400 Living Income Differential (LID) and the overall improvements of the cocoa sector from research, Inputs, production, value addition, processing to export.”
