Persistent rainfall and cloudy weather in the southwest cocoa growing region of the country has induced about a 20 percent rise in cocoa bean mold level, which is reducing the quality and threatening the potential earnings from export.

According to analysts, this high mold caused by persistent cloudy weather will affected crop quality, leading to lower pricing of beans by exporters.

“The lack of sunshine is not allowing for the proper drying of the harvested crop,” Najeem Bakare, managing director of Oyebanjo Ventures Ltd., a cocoa-buying company, said by phone on Thursday from the southwestern city of Abeokuta, as reported by Bloomberg.

Beans from the region are showing mold levels of about 20 percent and “exporters are rejecting them,” he said.

According to the International Cocoa Organisation, mold in beans for export are acceptable when less than 5 percent. Other parts of the southwest, which accounts for 70 percent of Nigeria’s production, have reported mold levels ranging from 12 percent in Ile Ife town to 15 percent in Ile Oluji, which has experienced incessant rain in recent days.

After harvesting, the cocoa pods are split open by hand and the seeds or beans, which are covered with a sweet white pulp or mucilage, are removed ready to undergo the two-part curing process – fermentation and drying. This prepares the beans for market and is the first stage in the development of chocolate.

Nigeria is the fourth largest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia. The former minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, said cocoa output has grown from 250,000 to 370,000mts in the past two years and it is expect to reach more than 600,000mts by 2016 as the new hybrids go into full production.

Nigeria’s agricultural imports declined by 11 percent from N738 billion imported in Q1 to N664 billion in Q2 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest foreign trade reports.

The affected beans are mainly early main-crop cocoa, whose season is set to officially start from October, according to Aminu Yakubu, secretary of the Cocoa Farmers’ Association in Edo state. “Unfortunately, most of the beans are robust and in the 290 grams (10.22 ounces) and 300 grams bean-count range,” he said by phone the state capital Benin City.

As many as 1,000 tons of beans have been rejected by exporters, forcing some farmers to leave ripened cocoa pods on the trees while awaiting more liberal sunshine, according to Muri Adeniji, an official of Lagos-based cocoa-exporter Starlink Global Ltd.

 

Josephine Okojie and Edozie Ifebi