Nigeria earned over N103 billion from cocoa commodity export in the year 2018. This was disclosed by Mr. Segun Awolowo, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
While speaking on Monday at a capacity building programme on cocoa grading and regulations in Lagos, Mr. Segun Awolowo reportedly disclosed that the country earned $338.17 million or N103.8 billion from Cocoa commodity export in 2018.
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Further details: Cocoa, which is one of Nigeria’s leading agricultural exports and the second highest foreign exchange earner next to crude oil production capacity, lurks around 245 metric tons.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of NEPC, “the low levels of production is a result of many factors including poor grading and quality-related issues.”
While disclosing the efforts made by NEPC to boost cocoa production, he said, “We have donated seedlings and agro-inputs including sprayers, agrochemicals as well as organizing capacity building on integrated pest management for our cocoa farmers and processors. Workshops for cocoa farmers and stakeholders were held in Akure, Ondo State; Oshogbo, Osun State, Umuahia, Abia State, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Ikom, Cross River State.”
Recent development: In a bid to boost revenue from cocoa exports, the Nigerian government is planning to team up with Cameroon to influence international cocoa prices. Both countries currently account for 10% of global cocoa production.
Speaking on the development, Mr Sayina Riman, President of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, recently stated that Nigeria and Cameroon were looking to see if they could become a regional bloc and see if buyers who knew the quality of both countries cocoa were willing to give better prices differentials. However, all of these are still informal talks between the two countries and a bilateral approach would be taken to establish it formally.
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A Quick check: According to the foreign trade report recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as at Q2 2019, Nigeria’s cocoa commodity export was to the tune of N18 billion, as against N14.2 billion the recorded in Q2 2018. This represents a 29.65% increase in the value of cocoa commodity exports year-on-year.
The breakdown of cocoa exports in the NBS report showed that Nigeria exports different types of Cocoa products. Specifically, Nigeria’s cocoa exports include fermented cocoa beans, natural cocoa butter, other quality cocoa butter, and other quality raw cocoa beans.