One major challenge facing Nigeria’s cocoa industry is poor local consumption.
Nigeria has no chocolate manufacturers at the moment, despite that the industry is worth about $120 billion globally.
Cocoa is the major input for the production of chocolates. Some beverage companies in Nigeria have their plants in Ghana and get their cocoa from that country.
“We should produce, process and consume the final products of cocoa like cocoa drinks and chocolates. This would help the country hedge against price volatility at the international market,” Robo Adhuze, chief operating officer, Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, said.
“We currently consume less than five percent of what we produce. Nigerians are yet to understand the health benefits of consuming cocoa. We need to increase our cocoa consumption, not just exporting all we produce,” Adhuze said.
All the chocolates consumed in Nigeria are majorly imported from Europe and the United States.
“We need to start promoting consumption of cocoa so that we do not rely on the international market to determine price” Dokun Thompson, the Olooni of Eti-Oni and an international cocoa trader, said.
Thompson stated that the country would generate more revenue and create jobs as well as other spin offs when cocoa is processed into intermediate products such as butter and cakes and also into finished products like chocolates.
Currently, Nigeria consumes only 5 percent of its total cocoa beans produced as beverage.
Multi-Trex Integrated Foods PLC, Nigeria’s largest cocoa processing factory, with a production capacity of 65,000MT per annum, that was supposed to commence chocolate production in the country to grow local consumption has since been shut down by the Asset Management Corporation Organisation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Multritrex was shut down in June 2015 over a contested sum of N8.5 billion Eligible Bank Asset (EBA) bought from Skye Bank.
Since the shutdown of Multri-trex Integrated 65,000 MT-capacity factory, Nigeria has seen its cocoa processing reduce by over 26 percent, according to BusinessDay’s calculations.
“If we start consuming much of the cocoa we are producing, we would be creating lots of jobs for our people,” said Sayina Rima, national president, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Rima also noted that daily consumption of cocoa drinks is good for the body, adding that cocoa drinks are medicinal and help in prevention of certain illnesses.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Nigeria was a major cocoa producer and supplied most of the world’s demand.
Cocoa was a major revenue and foreign exchange earner for the country and provided millions of jobs for the people, especially those in the southwest region.
Several years down the line, after the discovery of oil in commercial quantity, the once major cocoa producer now lags behind Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Ecuador and Cameroon in cocoa production, according to latest data from the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) 2016/2017 season.
The reasons for this are not far-fetched. BusinessDay investigations in Ondo, Cross River, Edo and Ogun states found that lack of improved seedlings, high numbers of un-rehabilitated trees, aging farmers, low level of investments in the industry and bad weather, among others, are major reasons for Nigeria’s loss of ‘cocoa power’ in the global market.
With adequate consumption by its 190 million people, experts say, the country will boost production and the industry will create employment, earn more foreign exchange and other spin offs.
Josephine Okojie
