The cocoa farmer association of Nigeria has revealed that, through the collaborative efforts of stakeholders and the US government, as well as the resuscitation of commodity boards by Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is set to overtake Ivory Coast and Ghana in developing a sustainable cocoa supply chain.
In light of this, the US Traceability and Resilience in Agriculture and Cocoa Ecosystems of Nigeria (TRACE) project implemented by Lutheran World Relief has been approved for a $22 million five-year development program.
The five-year program covers traceability, climate smart practices, input support to smallholder farmers, capacity building along the value chain, and exports in collaboration with Nigerian cocoa stakeholders.
The national president of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, Adeola Adegoke, said the implementation of the TRACE project will help the country overtake the likes of Ivory Coast and Ghana in growing cocoa sustainably.
He called on the European Union to begin seeing Nigeria as a cocoa origin country, taking the bull by the horn to address the challenges of cocoa sustainability as the TRACE project kicks off with the government’s readiness to resuscitate the Nigeria Cocoa Board.
Mr. Adegoke indicated that “the cocoa commodity board was once noted for the growth of the industry and the driver of the commodity that gave the highest foreign exchange earnings to the federal government, especially when Nigeria was adjudged the best producer of flavor cocoa beans in West Africa with good aroma’’.
Leading cocoa producers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana have been reported to be making significant progress in ending deforestation as they prepare for the potential introduction of strict new EU sustainability laws. The EU has proposed to completely ban unsustainable cocoa beans from entering international markets by 2025.
Côte d’Ivoire said it had mapped 3.2 million hectares of cocoa farms, while Ghana said it had mapped 72 percent of its total cocoa growing area via its national Cocoa Management System, both covering 515,762 farmers and 845,635 farms at the time.
Nigeria is presently fourth in cocoa production behind Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Indonesia with about 2.2 million MTS, 800,000 MTS, and 739,483 MTS, respectively, while Nigeria has 340,000 MTS and is currently targeting 500,000 MTS by the year 2024.
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