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COCOA FARMERS HAIL NEPC FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTION
…As council presents additional seedlings to farmers in Akure Thursday
The Cocoa Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COFAAA) and Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) have lauded the strategic gesture of increasing Ondo State cocoa production and productivity through the additional donation of hybrid cocoa seedlings to our members in the State by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The event slated for Thursday, 26th June, 2025 at CFAN House, Akure South, Ondo State, Nigeria is expected to attract stakeholders from the state and beyond.
According to a statement signed by the Global President of Cocoa Farmers Alliance Association of Africa, Comrade Adeola Adegoke, “the gesture marks the second time this year that the Ondo State Office of NEPC under the management of Mrs Iyabode Abbey will be taking the pragmatic and bold steps to increase the cocoa production, productivity and values as a leading cocoa producing States in Nigeria by giving this seedlings to our members in Ondo State”.
“Nigeria’s percentage share at the global cocoa production is about 6.5% of the world cocoa production with our current production between 280,000 MTS to 300,000 MTS since 2022 to 2024 cocoa season calendar”.
“However, Ondo State alone produces about 40% of the total production with about 90,000 MTS currently from the total national production. Nigeria’s cocoa productivity per hectare is around 300kg to 450 kg while our total value of export has grew from 666.9 million USD (171 billion Naira) in 2023 to about 0.78 billion USD (1.2 trillion) with cocoa butter and powder making a total of 2.212 trillion Naira”.
“This has translated to about 592.72 increment in values from the previous year due to spike hike in cocoa prices at the international market (NBS data)”, Comrade Adegoke said.
Adegoke who also doubles as the President of Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria stated that “this positive development and support from NEPC is to increase the state production from the present 90,000 MTS to 150,000 MTS in the next two years while contributing to the total national target of 500,000MTS in the next two years”.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, FEC approval on the re-establishment of the Cocoa Board without involvement in cocoa buying and selling is a welcome development for the industry that is battling with challenges ranging from climate change, low productivity, poor finance, weak infrastructure, low adoption of technologies, pest and diseases, traceability issue, weak collaboration, poor regulatory framework, low processing, low consumption etc.”
“The Cocoa Board being our demand in the industry will be enabled to solve the aforementioned challenges through collaboration with the industry stakeholders”.
“Cocoa farmers beneficiary of this gesture should take good care of the transplanting in order to reap immensely from positive development and support especially considering the factor of climate change which has continued to deal heavy blow on the survival rate of these seedlings”, the COFAAA Global President stressed.
“The need for best agronomics practices must be sustained, smart cocoa production adopted while sustainability takes the overall part of our industry”, Adegoke added.
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