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 4th position to 7th 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.
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