Nigeria’s sole cocoa export company trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange reported a 99% drop in export sales for the period ended June 30th, 2017.
According to details in the company’s 2017 half year results, the company reported cocoa butter export revenue of N874,000 compared to N183 million a year earlier, representing a whopping 99% drop. The company also reported a drop in local sales of cocoa cake, powder and liquor to N17.6 million from N158.3 million between 2017 and 2016 respectively.
Global Cocoa butter sales
Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, as well as some ointments, toiletries, and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter has a cocoa flavor and aroma (source: Wikipedia).
According to Product Complexity Index (PCI), Cocoa Butter is the 451st most traded product and the 1053rd most complex product according to the
The top exporters of Cocoa Butter are the Netherlands($1.44B), Indonesia ($771M), Cote d’Ivoire ($546M), Malaysia($511M) and France ($402M).
The top importers are Germany($801M), the United States ($618M), the Netherlands ($495M), Belgium-Luxembourg ($489M) and the United Kingdom($352M). Cocoa Butter is also known as paste, lotion, healing.
Data also reveals cocoa butter exports was valued at about $5.1 billion in 2015 and Nigeria recorded about 1.4% annual growth rate. Nigeria’s export value is put at $76 million. Nigeria exports about 42% to Germany and 31% to Netherlands, its two top export destinations. United Kingdom and Russia received 9.4% and 8.3% of our cocoa exports respectively.
Cocoa Exports
According to trade reports from the National Bureau of Statistics, Agric exports in the first quarter of 2017 was N30 billion representing just 1% of total exports. Cocoa exports was not included in the top ten exports in the country.
Nigeria, is considered the 6th largest exporter of Cocoa in the world with about 230,000 metric tonnes. Prior to the discovery of oil, cocoa was a main export of Nigeria and made the country one of the exporters of cocoa in the world.
About FTN Cocoa
FTN Cocoa Processors Plc was incorporated on 26 August 1991in Nigeria as a private company limited by shares under the name Fantastic Abiola Nigeria Limited which later became Fantastic Traders Nigeria Limited on 26 August, 1998. The company became a public limited liability company on 29 February, 2008 and got listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. The principal activities of the company is the processing of cocoa beans and palm kernel into cocoa cake, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, palm kernel oil and palm kernel cake for export and sales to local manufacturing companies.
