Letter from the President

My fellow cocoa stakeholders, aside from being a major anchor in the current professionalization process of the cocoa value chain and concerned stakeholder in the cocoa transformation agenda, our vision at CAN is to initiate a robust bean-to-bar database of the cocoa economy. In a networked and global cocoa economy, where traceability has become a major determinant for service and delivery provision, policy making and customer experience, we cannot and must not continue to operate in the dark.

It is indeed an embarrassment that we have different accounts and sources of the cocoa output in Nigeria; embarrassing even more that we do not know for sure how many producers are actively involved in production indeed, how many are share croppers, lien croppers, tenants etc. and indeed how many farmlands are under active cultivation and by what type of farmer.

Other concerns include what form of extension services are we getting, what varieties are under cultivation, what are the various types of cocoa produced, yield patterns, product attributes; and what markets can they serve?

Sadly, in a world where geo-referencing has become the order of the day, we cannot attract superior partners with mere guestimates. Further down the cocoa value chain, the situation is less problematic but we lack coherent data that can be retrieved at the touch of the button on the number of cocoa farm cooperatives, farm organizations, factors, LBAs, the assortment of middlemen, merchants and other operators. Even as this allows for easy entry and exit from the business of cocoa production, trading and service provision; it makes visioning and planning very difficult.

We are indeed grateful for the agricultural transformation agenda and the attendant fertilizer, input delivery and financing campaigns, which has triggered a strong re-awakening to move the cocoa economy to greater heights. But this momentum can only be sustained in an environment where data is effective, transparent, robust and readily available.

At CAN, discussions have already commenced with international partners, but we stand ready to collaborate with domestic stakeholders so that we can as a Nation own the process and be proud of the outcomes. Nonetheless, I am aware that this is also a crucial component of the Cocoa Transformation Agenda and we stand ready to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

We are as a body consulting wide on a number of fundamental issues confronting the industry vis-à-vis policy and finance.