Nigeria earns $900m from export of cocoa products in 2012

Nigeria realised about $900 mil­lion from the export of cocoa and cocoa prod­ucts in 2012, Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga said during the Na­tional Sensitisation Workshop of the project on Sanitary Phy­tosanitary Standards Capacity Building in Africa at Chelsea Hotel, Abuja, and last week.

In his address read by the Ag. Permanent Secretary, Olakunle Sogboola, the min­ister said cocoa is the sec­ond largest foreign exchange earner after crude oil and generates over two million jobs directly and indirectly along its value chain.

“The global market for cocoa is very huge, growing at an average of 3 percent per annum. Nigeria’s cocoa export has equally grown over the years by an average of 40 percent annually and a cu­mulative of 280 percent from $215m in 2006 to $822.8m from the export of cocoa and cocoa products last year.”

According to the minis­ter, “Nigeria is the world’s 4th largest producer and exporter of cocoa. Paradoxically, over 90 percent of the cocoa pro­duced is exported; our domestic consumption of this strategic commodity is barely 3 percent. Given this scenario, not only is increased local consumption encouraged, the pursuance of value addition in our export drive has also become the ul­timate goal of substantially re­ducing the export of raw cocoa and ensuring stable and im­proved income for our farmers”.

Aganga noted that the pri­mary goal of the country was to secure a sustainable market for cocoa and cocoa prod­ucts as well as effort to pro­mote food safety and prevent threats of pesticides and con­taminants to human health.

According to him, “This capacity building workshop- the SPS Cocoa Africa Proj­ects’- at this time is not only appropriate, but also in line with government’s commit­ment to the continued growth and development of this vital industry through improved quality standards. It is also in compliance with prescribed international regulations re­garding pesticides residues, banned agro-chemicals and other harmful substances.

“It is expected that at the end of the implementation of this project in Nigeria, we would have trained adequate personnel capable of conduct­ing in-depth analysis of cocoa and other food products, in addition to well equipped and functional laboratories, which will conform to any SPS regu­lation anywhere in the world”

The minister said that his Ministry and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture will continue to encourage the development of farmers and commodity associations for proper orientation and educa­tion on SPS issues with a view to promoting and strengthen­ing global market access for our agricultural and non oil products.

SIAKA MOMOH