NEPC said efforts are underway to partner with research and academic institutions to increase production and distribution of seedlings to farmers. Photo: CABOSSA
If Nigeria deploys measures to increase yield, land area under cultivation, quality of cocoa beans through new techniques in fermentation and sustainable farming, embrace organic certification, and target new markets, it might be able to increase production revenue of the commodity to $1.1 billion by 2025.
This was part of the recommendations made by a team of MBA students of (University of California at Los Angeles UCLA (USA), sponsored by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), to understudy the demand and supply situation of Nigerian cocoa in the U.S. market.
To achieve this target, the NEPC said efforts are underway to partner with research and academic institutions to increase production and distribution of seedlings to farmers, as well as deploy capacity building on improved processing to achieve premium cocoa for export.