Cocoa Production: Nigeria looks to becoming continent’s biggest producer by 2027
Cocoa farmers in Nigeria are ambitiously working towards increasing their output, with the hopes of surpassing their counterparts in Ivory Coast and Ghana over the next five years.
The umbrella body that represents the Nigerian farmers —the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) — said this would be actualised through a combination of factors, including sustaining farming.
The association argued that increasing Nigeria’s cocoa output would help the country to earn more foreign exchange, a situation that would in turn improve the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the meantime, CFAN is starting with its short-term goal which entails increasing Nigeria’s cocoa production from its current 328,263 metric tons per annum to 500, 000 metric tons over the next tow years.
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While unpacking CFAN’s lofty plans during the launch of a new national office in Abuja, the association’s President Comrade Adeola Adegoke said:
“Our focus as a nation is to surpass the production and production capacity of both Ivory Coast and Ghana in the next five years through a sustainable cocoa production where we will have a more realistic largest cocoa pyramid in the world in Nigeria to grow our foreign exchange earnings and GDP respectively… This will be done particularly on the safe use and application of pesticide, child labour free, prevention of deforestation, putting traceability in place, having sustainable ecosystem and good quality cocoa in general.”
According data obtained from World Population Review, Ivory Coast is currently the largest producers of cocoa beans in Africa.
As of 2021, the Francophone West African country recorded a production output of 2,034,000 metric tones, followed by Ghana with 883,652 metric tones. Nigeria’s output during the year under review stood at 328,263 metric tons.
