{"id":6000,"date":"2025-06-22T18:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/6000\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T18:57:12","slug":"boost-cocoa-consumption-operators-urge-fg-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/6000\/","title":{"rendered":"Boost Cocoa Consumption: Operators Urge FG Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cocoa<\/strong> operators have urged the Federal Government to boost the sector by mandating local consumption, including chocolate, in the country.\n<\/p>\n

These operators are not making the call for the first time. Back in 2019, The PUNCH reported a call from the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria to the Federal Government to include cocoa tea in the Home Grown School Feeding Programme across the country.\n<\/p>\n

In separate interviews with Sunday PUNCH, operators including the leaders of CFAN and the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, observed that low consumption is crippling the sector\u2019s growth due to local culture and widespread ignorance of cocoa health benefits. They maintained that a government mandate can help build a cocoa-consuming culture in Nigeria.\n<\/p>\n

CAN President Mufutau Abolarinwa said, \u201cChocolate is not widely consumed locally. And we ask, what can the government do to create a chocolate market? It\u2019s simple. The government should make it mandatory to give chocolate to children of school age, in primary and secondary schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abolarinwa argued that to have a thriving processed cocoa product value chain in Nigeria, stakeholders will have to create a market for products, including chocolate. \u201cThe government has to catch them when they are young. We are not talking about our generation, but the generation that is coming. They should be encouraged,\u201d he said, emphasising a long-term consumption plan.\n<\/p>\n

Nigeria consumes cocoa products, evident in its cocoa powder importation. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in the fourth quarter of 2024, Nigeria imported N4.62bn worth of cocoa powder, containing added sugar or other sweetening matter, from countries in the Economic Community of West African States. The commodity also made Nigeria\u2019s top 10 import products from ECOWAS countries in Q1 2025.\n<\/p>\n

Yet, stakeholders identify that the growth of cocoa, Nigeria\u2019s top agricultural export, with an export value of N1.32tn (all forms of the commodity), is stunted by a low consumption drive.<\/p>\n

For CFAN President Adeola Adegoke, Nigeria is starting at a disadvantage compared to the global markets. He said, \u201cIn terms of chocolate, we can\u2019t compete. I\u2019ve always said that Nigeria\u2019s competitive advantage is in cocoa production and processing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Adegoke lamented that Nigeria faces numerous standardisation challenges in making cocoa consumables. \u201cYou can\u2019t compete where you cannot \u2013 permit me to use that word \u2013 consume what you are producing,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf you are producing chocolate and the market of consumption is not in Africa or Nigeria, why do you engage in it? What you have a competitive advantage in is production.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Recent data from the United Nations\u2019 Food and Agriculture Organisation places Nigeria as the world\u2019s seventh biggest cocoa bean producer, producing more than 280,000 tonnes in 2023. A 2025 Vestance research publication stated that Nigeria, \u201cranks sixth in global cocoa production, far behind West African neighbours \u2013 Cote D\u2019Ivoire and Ghana \u2013 Indonesia, Ecuador and Brazil, accounting for only six per cent of the global production.\u201d <\/p>\n

The country\u2019s stats are lower on processing. According to a 2023 International Cocoa Organisation\u2019s Feasibility Study On Africa Cocoa Exchange Appendix III: Nigeria Country Report publication, grinding companies, which are intermediate processors, produce two critical cocoa derivatives from the measured average of 233,000 metric tonnes of cocoa bean, namely cocoa butter (38 per cent); cocoa powder (42 per cent) from cocoa liquor (80 per cent).\n<\/p>\n

The report added that Nigeria\u2019s \u201c20 per cent balance, typically called waste, finds use as animal feed, fertiliser, cosmetics\/personal health care, additives for the food and confectionery, as well as for feedstock for biogas production. Five to 10 per cent of the cocoa powder and cocoa butter production is utilised by the beverage, biscuit and ice-cream manufacturing companies, the burgeoning artisanal chocolate producers and a wide array of baking and confectionery outfits.\u201d Notably, the report noted that about 90 to 95 per cent of Nigeria\u2019s cocoa powder and butter production is exported.\n<\/p>\n

While CFAN\u2019s president highlighted the state of the cocoa sector, which has been in decline, CAN President Abolarinwa recommended that the Federal Government drive chocolate consumption by subsidising the food for schoolchildren.\n<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe government should subsidise it for them. Children in school need to have chocolate as part of their food. The government should support them with it so that once they get used to eating chocolate, it continues into secondary school and the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abolarinwa explained that chocolate is a healthy food vital to brain development. \u201cIt\u2019s not just ordinary food. If it were just ordinary food, then why is it that despite the price of cocoa today, Westerners are still buying cocoa? They know the health benefits of chocolate,\u201d he argued. Abolarinwa and Adegoke affirmed Nigeria\u2019s cocoa consumption potential, as cocoa powder products gain ground in the market.\n<\/p>\n

Abolarinwa hailed the cocoa powder market for its growth in Nigeria. \u201cOur Nigerian factories are producing cocoa powder,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are taking cocoa powder all over the country. For example, Cadbury and Nestle are all buying cocoa powder. People are making it locally and selling it.\n<\/p>\n

He projected a more impressive market performance as chocolates come on board, stating, \u201cWhen you look at the way the powder has gained market share in Nigeria, you imagine what it could look like if chocolate also has the same prominence; the price of Nigeria\u2019s cocoa will go up in the world market.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is mostly foreigners buying it and fixing the price for us, and they buy at the price that favours them. But once they know that you also consume it locally, then they will be begging you to get the product from you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Adegoke urged more consumption, noting that the value of cocoa powder used in the country is \u201cstill very low compared to cocoa butter.\u201d He added, \u201cWe can continue to leverage it in terms of making sure to train our children, our youth, our women to be creative, to advocate for consumption.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cocoa operators have urged the Federal Government to boost the sector by mandating local consumption, including chocolate, in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7555,64,7556,7557,7558,7559,7560,7561,7562,79,2142,7563,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-6000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-agriculture-nigeria","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-chocolate-consumption","11":"tag-cocoa-consumption","12":"tag-cocoa-farmers","13":"tag-cocoa-industry-nigeria","14":"tag-cocoa-policy","15":"tag-cocoa-production","16":"tag-economic-growth-nigeria","17":"tag-economy","18":"tag-federal-government","19":"tag-nigerian-cocoa","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114728550120412621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}