Cocoa was the perfect performing commodity in 2024, outpacing even bitcon, as costs surged 132 %, hitting a document excessive of $10,353 per ton in December, in keeping with information from the Worldwide Cocoa Affiliation (ICCO).
Costs of cocoa beans surged from a median of $4,453 per ton in January 2024 to a median of $10,353 per ton in December 2024, ICCO information exhibits.
The surge, in keeping with consultants, is pushed by the worst deficit provide in a long time skilled in Ivory Coast and Ghana, two main commodity suppliers that disrupted world provide.
Learn additionally: How farmers reaped billions from cocoa, sesame exports in 2024
The surge in cocoa costs made Nigerian farmers to revive outdated cocoa timber in transfer to broaden advantages from the windfall.
Cocoa costs soared to unprecedented ranges in the course of the first six months of the 12 months, reaching historic highs of $12,000 per ton in April 2024, however declined 14 % to $10,353 per ton in December.
Farmers informed BusinessDay how they made income from promoting cocoa beans to processors within the interval in addition to what number of others revived outdated timber.
Sayina Riman, a cocoa farmer in Ikom, Cross River State, informed BusinessDay that he paid extra consideration to his cocoa plantation in 2025 than every other 12 months.
“I paid extra consideration to my cocoa farm in 2025 than earlier than. I pruned the undergrowth and utilized liquid fertiliser, which is one thing I’ve by no means carried out,” Riman shared with BusinessDay in 2024.
Nevertheless, Riman was solely one in every of many farmers who intensified efforts on their cocoa plantations in 2024.
Adeola Adegoke, nationwide president of the Cocoa Farmers Affiliation of Nigeria, mentioned a number of cocoa farmers made big quantities of cash from cocoa gross sales final 12 months.
“It exhibits that if governments and all of us within the personal sector can stay targeted when it comes to rising and decentralising the manufacturing of cocoa, Nigeria could possibly be producing about 500,000 to 600,000 metric tons,” he mentioned.
Within the prime agricultural exports for 9 months of 2024, information from the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) present that cocoa was the perfect performing crop within the 12 months in Nigeria, which coincide with the worldwide efficiency.
Nigeria raked in N1.46 trillion in 9 months of 2024 from cocoa exports. It bought the commodity to the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Belgium, Germany, and Italy.
One exporter informed BusinessDay that he made some huge cash from cocoa exports in 2024. “We earned much more exporting cocoa and sesame seeds in Europe in 2024 than we had ever earned within the earlier two years.
Nevertheless, we didn’t export them uncooked; we processed the cocoa beans to promote them at increased costs,” mentioned Francis Okeleke, managing director of Kenfrancis Farms, who invests in agro-based companies.
Learn additionally: Okomu, FTN Cocoa exports leap 205% on high quality
The worth of cocoa beans (each superior, customary high quality & different high quality not specified) exported in 9 months of 2024 accounted for 7.12 % of whole agricultural exports (N20.56 trillion) in the identical interval.
Nigeria is presently the world’s fourth largest producer of cocoa with 280,000 metric tonnes within the 2022–2023 season, in keeping with the ICCO, after Ivory Coast, Indonesia, and Ghana, and the third largest exporter, after Ivory Coast and Ghana.
