Unless urgent action is taken, Nigeria may lose $20 billion revenue from cocoa in the next three years. This is because the country does not appear to be taking seriously the issue of afforestation of the land as there appears to be a rise in the number of people now engaged in cocoa farming. The alarm was raised by the Executive Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Rabiu Olowo. He said this when the council received a delegation from the House of Representatives Committee on Commerce led by the lawmaker representing Lere Federal Constituency in Kaduna State, Ahmed Munir, in Abuja.
He canvassed for adequate attention to be paid to deforestation and farmland management to ensure sustainability, adding that the loss was likely to occur if the nation does not align with the sustainability adoption road map, which will affect the processing and the trade acceptance of the product in Europe.
Honourable Munir said, “It will interest you to note that the issue of sustainability is absolutely important, that’s why we’re driving it very, very rigorously.
“Nigeria is on the brink of losing over $20 billion in cocoa exports within the next three years if we do not align ourselves with the processing and the reporting expectations of Europe.
“It’s our cocoa they use in making chocolates and all of that. But if you don’t pay attention to deforestation, the way you arrange your farmland, the way you process your coca, and all of these things, your products however good will not be competitive, and that is the real issue.”
According to CEPII research and expertise of the world economy, In 2022, Nigeria exported $489M in Cocoa Beans. The main destinations of Nigeria’s exports of Cocoa Beans were the Netherlands ($189M), Indonesia ($105M), Malaysia ($87.9M), Canada ($29.4M), and the United States ($16.9M). In 2022, Nigeria imported $47 in Cocoa Beans, mainly from Turkey ($47). These include Cocoa Beans (Raw/Roasted, Whole/Broken).
Similarly, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in the first quarter of 2024, export of agricultural products was dominated by ‘Sesamum seeds’ valued at N247.75 billion, ‘Superior quality Cocoa beans,’ with N230.85 billion and ‘Standard quality Cocoa beans’ with N140.09 billion. Further analysis showed that ‘Sesamum seeds’ worth N83.29 billion and N58.04 billion were exported to China and Japan, respectively while “Superior quality Cocoa beans, worth N112.00 billion and N48.28 billion were exported to The Netherlands and Malaysia respectively. Whereas; ‘Standard quality Cocoa beans’ worth N58.29 billion and N37.77 billion were exported to The Netherlands and Malaysia, respectively.
Olowo also disclosed that the FRC has concluded talks with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Environment, where they made very loud pronouncements and got good buying from corporate Nigeria to boost exports and increase foreign exchange earnings.
