The Cocoa Exporters Association of
Nigeria, CEAN, has urged Federal government to restore the era when
Cocoa was a major avenue of revenue generation in the country.
The association recalled that in the
1960s and 1970s, the country banked on the commodity as the largest
foreign revenue earning and one of the leading cocoa producers, but
today, Nigeria is seventh in world ranking.
A statement by the Secretary-General of
the Association, Kayode Babade in Akure, noted that Nigeria “has all it
takes to take over the leadership position in cocoa production in the
world, if farmers and exporters are encouraged adequately by the
government.”
It however commended President Muhammed
Buhari and the Minister for Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh for
inaugurating the Cocoa Re-launch Committee aimed at diversifying the
economy to an agric-based.
This development, the association observed would boost the vision to make Nigeria becoming the world’s largest cocoa producer.
According to the statement, “CEAN had in
the past contributed immensely to the growth and expansion of cocoa in
the country by providing loans and herbicides to farmers to enable them
increase production.
“With this federal government
initiative,we are equally ready to further partner with the farmers to
ensure that the federal government vision on increased cocoa production
comes to reality very soon.”
The CEAN president, Pius Ayodele urged
the committee to make a success of the new assignment, stressing that as
major stakeholders in the cocoa value chain, it looked forward to the
cocoa re-launch campaign coming up at Ondo in March this year.
He promised that his association would
contribute to the success of the scheme to ensure that Nigeria’s
production of cocoa improves greatly like in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
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