The Federal Government has declared that it is committed to increasing Nigeria’s cocoa production from the present 340,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes annually by 2024.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar in a statement after a meeting with Mr Arrion Michel, Executive Director, International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), in Abuja.
The Minister revealed that Nigeria is the 4th largest producer of cocoa globally, and is committed to partnerships in its cocoa development.
What the Minister is saying
The Minister said that Nigeria was ranked number four among cocoa-producing countries in the world, assuring of the “commitment of the Federal Government to increase Nigeria’s cocoa production from the present 340,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes by 2024.
“Recently, Nigeria has made a remarkable move to join the Living Income Differential (LID) initiatives which was established by Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2019 which aims at guaranteeing the livelihood of smallholder farmers through LID of $400/ton of cocoa beans sold.
”The two countries are benefiting while Nigerian cocoa farmers are at a disadvantage of this benefit due to unregulated and liberalised cocoa industry in the country,” Abubakar said.
He also stated that the Nigerian and Ghana cocoa board had yielded positive results in its talks with the recent approval by the ministry to establish the National Cocoa Management Committee (NCMC).
“The committee will consist of all relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian cocoa industry, develop a framework for the regulation and monitoring of all activities in the cocoa sector in order to achieve transparency, traceability and sustainability,” he said.
He also revealed that the FG will implement the LID system as the country strives to take cocoa production to a new height.
Mr Arrion Michel, Executive Director, International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), revealed that Africa produces about 80% of cocoa ”but the price is determined in Europe and there is a need to address the issues of market force,”
“Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Ecuador are the major producers of cocoa while Nigeria is the fourth producer of the product, saying that the product is a key to small holders farmers in many countries,” Michel added.
What you should know
- In Q1 2022, Nigeria exported Superior quality cocoa beans valued at N72.59 billion, as contained in the foreign trade report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
- The increase in Nigeria’s export earnings turned the foreign trade balance in favour of Nigeria for the first time since Q2 2021 and the highest since Q3 2019. Notably, Nigeria recorded a foreign trade surplus of N1.19 trillion in the review quarter compared to N173.96 billion deficit recorded in Q4 2021.
- Nigeria’s agricultural export surged by 57.02% to N504.9 billion in 2021 compared to N321.5 billion recorded in the previous year, which is also the highest agro-export income on record. Nigeria exported cocoa beans worth N209.89 billion in 2021, accounting for 41.6% of the total export earnings by Nigeria in the year under review. A further breakdown of the data from the NBS showed that Nigeria exported superior quality raw cocoa beans worth N37.42 billion while export of well-fermented cocoa beans was stated at N209.9 billion.
