The European Union has threatened to reject cocoa produced in Nigeria from next year due to a fall in the commodity’s quality, the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria has said.
President of the association, Adeola Adegoke, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday that cocoa farmers were currently apprehensive over the imminent rejection of the product by the European Union beginning from 2022.
Adegoke noted that the EU policy on overdose of chemicals on Nigeria’s cocoa was what could result to the rejection of the commodity produced in Nigeria.
He said, “Our buyers are complaining on quality. They are now threatening Nigeria that they are going to reject our cocoa and that is a very serious issue that would be addressed at the summit. We are also looking at the EU policy which says as long as we continue to use chemicals more than the original level, it will be rejected 2022. Are we going to wait till 2022, like we did during the beans ban? We don’t need to wait for this. So the summit will address these issues. This is very important in our drive. Presently it is unacceptable to us as stakeholders for Nigeria to have the land, resources and manpower be producing 250,000MT, where Ivory Coast that does not enjoy the land that we have produces about 2.5 million to 2.8 million MT. Even Ghana produces 1.5 million MT. Our average productivity per hectare is rated to be about 300 to 350kg, where in Ghana and Ivory Coast, have average production per hectare of 800 to1000kg,”