CAN proposes five year plan as price fall

President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Vice President, World producers cocoa organization, Mr. Sayina Riman

One of the focal issues the first international cocoa conference starting tomorrow Monday in Abuja, Nigeria may have to look into is how a five year action plan will be put in place to strengthen the produce against the falling price through backward integration production with consumption through provisions of government off takers policy.

This was the position of the President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Vice President, World producers cocoa organization, Mr. Sayina Riman during his chat with Food Farm News, as he stated that the summit would look at using a five year action plan to intensify on accelerated productivity with off takers availability through government policy creation of home school feeding programme and supplies to military operation because of its health benefits.  

Mr. Riman said that CAN would use the conference to present an actionable plan to drive cocoa production and consumption in Nigeria saying that “the summit intends to propose a five year cocoa plan. We did not intend to focus on what the world had as regards production figure for us presently, or what has brought about the drop in price from $3500 as of January this year to its present $1850, but rather to see how our five year action plan will focus on how productivity per hectare does better with strategies on how to revive the entire cocoa value chains from production, processing and marketing” 

He added that the conference would also look critically on more proactive ways to reposition cocoa for more competitiveness in the global market, pointed that its present production figure has dropped from 250,000-300,000 metric tons to 190,000 which has thereby degraded Nigeria from her 4^th position to 7^th in the world rating of 6.5%, stressed the instability of the financial sector was part of the reasons for this drop.

The CAN president advocated that 75% to 90% of cocoa production must be consumed locally through the government local content policy on consumption saying that “if 20% of Nigerians consume 500gams of cocoa in a month, we will have consumed over 250,000 metric tons of the production, which means Nigeria has the potential to be able to consume 100% of what she produces”

Mr. Riman added that the summit would provide an interface for stakeholders to brainstorm on the better ways of repositioning cocoa towards local consumption through government policy on “school feeding programme, supply to military formations and all government functions as official drink in Nigeria for its health benefit”

 “The event will further focus on consumption, good productivity per hectare, see that the value addition sector, which are the processors have adequate and long term funding, tackling more monumental challenges that the industry faces, and a genuine compilation of data of our cocoa farms that will attract friendly investors and not what we have as estimates from every sector” said CAN president.

The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh last year has promised on behalf of FG that the needful would be done to resuscitate the produce during the visit of International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) Executive Director, Dr. Jean-Mar Angar and Director of African Export-Import Bank, Mr. Kofi Adomakoh who had come to intimate the government on the poor performance of the country in the world market.

As at the time of this report, foreign participators for the summit have been arriving the country according to the National President of Cocoa.