Some craft chocolate makers in Nigeria are raring to have a share of the $100 billion global market as they strive to change an industry that has long left cocoa farmers in poverty.
The chocolate makers such as Loshes, Kalabari Gecko, Tiwa, and Loom Chocolates are now processing the crispy and sour beans into chocolates to change the industry’s narrative.
“There are lots of chocolate manufacturers in the country now and most of them are already exporting their chocolates,” said Dokun Thompson, the Oloni of Eti-Oni and organiser of the Eko Chocolate Show.
Thompson, whose company also exports its chocolate to England, said most European countries that are top chocolate manufacturers do not grow cocoa, and they benefit more from the global industry.
He called for a change in narrative, saying top producers of the beans should start getting more profits from the global industry by tapping into other value chain opportunities.
“We want to start benefitting from our cocoa production by tapping the opportunities in chocolate production,” he said.
More than 70 percent of the world’s cocoa beans are used for production by large chocolate producers in North America and Europe to make their sweet goods come from West Africa, according to experts.
However, millions of smallholder farmers who depend on cocoa production for their livelihoods often have little or nothing to show for the cultivation of the commodity as most of them are not involved in the processing of the sour beans that are turned into chocolates.
Instead, they focus on growing, harvesting, and selling raw cocoa beans, making them excluded from the financial benefits produced by the lucrative chocolate industry.
In 2019, the International Cocoa Association estimated the value of cocoa export from Africa at $10 billion yearly, and the total value of chocolate production at over $100 billion.
It is on this basis that the Nigerian chocolate industry is striving to have its fair share of the ever-growing global chocolate market.
“We have opened a distribution centre in Budapest, Hungary where we plan to distribute to other European countries,” said Lawrence Afere, founder and chief executive of Springboard, makers of Tiwa Chocolate in Ondo State.
“There is a huge global market for chocolate, and we are working to have our share,” Afere said.
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Uzoamaka Igweike, founder and chief executive officer at Loom Craft Chocolate – a chocolate-making company in Abuja, said the chocolate market in Nigeria is dominated by foreign players.
She said the country needs scores of Nigerian chocolate makers making great quality chocolate to capture the market so that “we can enjoy the full value of our cocoa.”
According to Euromonitor International, the size of Nigeria’s chocolate confectionery industry is estimated to be $31.1 million in 2021. Igweike said this indicates Nigerians’ love for chocolate, and therein lies a huge opportunity.
To grow the local chocolate industry, experts urge the government to invest heavily in research and development, while also empowering research and technological institutes to build equipment for the industry rather than importing.
“With local production of key equipment for the industry, more people will be attracted into the industry and jobs will be created,” Thompson said.
Sayina Rima, former national president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said the local industry will grow when the government starts promoting local consumption of cocoa in the country.
“If we start consuming much of the cocoa we are producing, we would be creating lots of jobs for our people,” said Rima.
Rima said daily consumption of cocoa drinks is good for the body, adding that cocoa drinks are medicinal and help in the prevention of certain illnesses.
