The Federal Government has stated that Nigeria loses approximately $2 billion annually in potential value from cocoa due to underutilized processing capacity. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made this known in Lagos on Wednesday at a two-day Africa Cocoa and Coffee Conference organized by the Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COCEFAAA) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN). Kyari, represented by the Deputy Director of Tree Crops at FMAFS, Mr. Ajayi Olutobaba, noted that Nigeria has an installed cocoa processing capacity of about 2,000 tonnes annually, but only about 30 percent is currently utilized. He added that the government is focused on moving Nigeria from simply producing cocoa to processing it into finished products.
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