Nigeria’s ‘cocoa boys’ swap the city for the farm as prices rise

[Pelican Press 0]

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Nigeria’s ‘cocoa boys’ swap the city for the farm as prices rise

STORY: This is Ikom, a cocoa-growing heartland in southeastern Nigeria.

And its been experiencing an influx.

Driven by rising prices, a cohort of mostly men have been switching their careers to farming.

They’re known as “cocoa boys”

“If you’re calling me a cocoa boy, I will accept gladly.”

Mark Bassey left his job as a medical laboratory scientist to become a grower in his ancestral home.

“When you hear about this cocoa, there is this mentality, this understanding that comes into you that those guys are big boys.”

The Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, which represents smallholder farmers, says it saw its membership increase by more than 10,000 in 2023-2024.

:: Assin Foso, Ghana

That’s as a drop in output from the world’s two biggest cocoa exporters, Ghana and Ivory Coast, caused global prices for the chocolate ingredient to spike.

They’ve risen, according to the International Cocoa Organization, or ICCO, from up to $2,500 per metric ton in 2022 to nearly $11,000 in December 2024.

And that’s created an opportunity for people like Anyoghe Akwa.

He left Ikom as a young man to study civil engineering. Now he’s back.

“I haven’t left civil engineering, I love it. But I have more interest in cocoa now because it’s generating, per annum, it’s generating more money for me.”

When Akwa left a bag of cocoa beans would sell for between $15 and $20.

He says last year he harvested four bags, which each sold for between $500 and $750.

The ***** of one bag, he added, matched his annual salary as a civil engineer.

According to the ICCO, Nigeria is the world’s fourth largest cocoa producer – though its output is far behind Ghana and Ivory Coast.

To boost the sector the government has been handing out free seedlings.

That’s alongside factors like new cocoa strains that bear fruit within 18 months, and, of course, the influx of new farmers.

Rasheed Adedeji is director of research and strategy at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.

“So putting all these things together, by now, we believe Nigeria cocoa production level would have doubled.”

However, a major increase in output is not being reflected in official figures.

Adedeji said one reason is that a significant proportion is smuggled out of Nigeria each year.

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