Nigerian govt to hold talks with pvt sector before joining hand with Cameroon in cocoa biz

Nigeria intends to join hand with Cameroon to agree a premium for their cocoa with buyers after Ghana and Ivory Coast-based top growers enhanced prices for their crops.

Sayina Riman, the Vice President of World Cocoa Producers Organisation told Reuters that Nigeria’s plan is an effort by the growers to address a perceived imbalance between farmers’ incomes and money made by big commodities traders.

Nigeria, which is considered the planet’s fourth-largest cocoa producer, wants to follow suit to protect its farmers. Ghana and Ivory Coast imposed a fixed “living income differential” of USD 400 a tonne on all cocoa contracts sold by either country for the 2020/21 season. The two African countries, despite being considered the planet’s leading cocoa producers, exerted limited influence over international prices.

“We are talking to Cameroon to see if we can become a regional bloc … and see if we can get our buyers who know our quality to give us better differentials,” Sayina Riman said. “We need to approach it as a bilateral discussion,” he added.

According to Sayina Riman, Cameroon alongside Nigeria account for around 10 percent of global production and both the nations have the ability to double the output within five years. One of the positive aspects is both the countries share a border and have similar climatic features.

He also revealed that the government of Nigeria would have discussions with the private sector representatives to create a plan, which will further have talks with Cameroon. The Nigerian officials earlier also met the British and Dutch officials to discuss the enhancement of cocoa exports to Europe instead of selling beans via third party buyers in Asia.

Albeit Nigeria doesn’t have a central cocoa authority unlike Ghana and Ivory Coast, experts and traders believe everyone will purchase the product from Nigeria if it becomes quite cheap.

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