Nigeria’s non-oil export seen rising on global cocoa price rally

…farmers expect mid-crop output maintained

Farmers and traders in the country are projecting a boost in Nigeria’s first quarter non-oil export proceeds as cocoa price, the country’s flagship export crop, hit a record high and surged beyond $10,000 per ton for the first time.

Global cocoa prices have more than doubled since the start of 2024 with no sign of slowing down, as the world faces the worst supply deficit in decades. Farmers in major West Africa suppliers — Ivory Coast and Ghana — are struggling with poor harvests due to poor weather and pod disease outbreaks.

Mufutau Abolarinwa, national president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), said the global cocoa price surge is a blessing to Nigerian growers and will help increase the country’s non-oil export as the commodity remains Nigeria’s leading agricultural export product.

“This surge will bring more dollars into the country, increasing our revenue from non-oil exports,” he said. He added that cocoa farmers’ earnings are surging at the moment with their livelihoods positively impacted.

Oba Dokun Thompson, the Oloni Eti-Oni, chairman of Eti-Oni Development Group and producer of Gureje IV chocolate bars said that the skyrocketing surge in cocoa price would boost the inflow of foreign exchange into the country.

He noted that not only is the commodity a leading cash crop in Nigeria, but it also tops the chart of most exported agricultural products in the country, citing data from Nigeria’s foreign trade in consumer goods report.

Nigeria is currently the world’s fourth largest producer of cocoa with 280,000 metric tonnes in the 2022–2023 season, according to the International Cocoa Organisation’s latest data on global production, after Ivory Coast, Indonesia, and Ghana, and the third largest exporter, after Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Africa’s most populous nation exported a total of N356.16 billion worth of cocoa beans in 2023, an 18.44 percent increase when compared to 2022 N300.71 billion.

The export of the commodity accounts for 28.72 percent of total agricultural exports (1.24 trillion) in 2023 and 5.6 percent of non-oil exports for the same period.

Locally, prices of cocoa beans are also surging on weaker naira, as a metric now sells for N12 million per metric ton at Matori cocoa warehouse in Lagos as against an average of N8 million per ton in February, indicating a 50 percent rise in prices in a month.