Farmers’ Group Canvasses For Return Of Cocoa Board

By Ayodele Oni

For enhanced production, a plea for the return of Cocoa Board has gone to the federal government.

Cocoa Roundtable Initiative (CORI) saddled with the responsibility of transforming life of Cocoa Farmers in the country,  in an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, called for the provision of subsidized inputs to cocoa farmers to enhance their productivity that will translate into more income for them and revenue for Government at all levels in 2025.

The letter reads “Mr. President, it is interesting to note that the performance of the cocoa sector in the last one year in the generation of FX and top earnings in the non-crude oil sector cannot be taken for granted.

“According to the NBS report your Excellency, the cocoa exports rose by 304 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 due to higher demand and weak naira. The country’s cocoa exports, which accounted for 42.4 percent of the N1.04 trillion agricultural exports for the period, surged to N438.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024 from N108,6 billion in the corresponding period of 2023.

“And the good prospect of this development in the sector is in the stabilization of the price of cocoa which is not less than 10 million naira per metric tonne in the last one year.”

The letter signed by Adeola Adegoke, DG, Cocoa Roundtable Initiative (CORI) & National President, Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) explained that the National Cocoa Management Committee, (NCMC) formed in August 2022 by the past administration was due to pressures mounted by the smallholder cocoa farmers of Nigeria under Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN).

The formation was as a result of total free market in the cocoa industry without regulation in consideration of the sector’s contribution to the economy of Nigeria.

“Cocoa Roundtable Initiative (CORI) appeals to your Excellency to passionately look into the funding of this critical sector in order not to reverse the present prosperity of our cocoa farmers through EU sanctioning of any unsustainable cocoa place on EU market after 2024 December but now to be extended by another 12 months.

“This EU policy might affect Nigeria cocoa sector if proper regulation, funding and legal framework to support NCMC and NTF operations to combat the industry challenges are not put in place.

“Mr. President should not forget that one of his promises during his campaign was to provide boards for some critical agricultural commodities, which will not be involved in buying, but developing and regulating such sector of which cocoa should takes preference as a leading FX provider and internal revenue generation in the country.

“Your Excellency, we believe the case of cocoa had been settled with the setting-up of the National Cocoa Management Committee (NCMC ), but has been so far hampered in operations in the last two years due to lack of funding to perform her statutory regulatory responsibilities and her legal status to transform into a board through the National Assembly legal backing.

“We urge Mr. President, Governors of the cocoa producing States and lovers of the Nigerian cocoa industry to look into the funding and legal framework support to NCMC through the National Assembly in order to save the industry from regulatory lapses that could undermine the present gains of high price of cocoa beans that is not less than 10million per MT that our cocoa farmers are currently enjoying and Nigeria determination to become the highest cocoa producing country in West Africa before 2027.”