{"id":10093,"date":"2026-11-05T15:15:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/nigerias-cocoa-farmers-see-maincrop-output-holding-amid-favourable-weather-businessday-ng-2\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T15:15:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:15:51","slug":"nigerias-cocoa-farmers-see-maincrop-output-holding-amid-favourable-weather-businessday-ng-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/nigerias-cocoa-farmers-see-maincrop-output-holding-amid-favourable-weather-businessday-ng-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria\u2019s cocoa farmers see maincrop output holding amid favourable weather – Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026as the season commences\u00a0<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s cocoa farmers expect maincrop production to hold steady this season as favorable weather patterns across key growing regions support pod development, harvesting, and drying.\n<\/p>\n

A balanced mix of timely rainfall and prolonged sunshine in the country\u2019s cocoa belt has helped mitigate earlier cultivation challenges, laying the groundwork for a stable harvest as the new season officially begins.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to retain our output for the 2026\/2027 maincrop season,\u201d Adeola Adegoke, national president of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), said in a telephone response to questions. \u201cThe weather conditions are favourable, and rains have not stopped, even with the heat. This is helping the pods develop well and also for sun drying,\u201d Adegoke said.\n<\/p>\n

While yield per tree was lower during the 2026\/2027 cycle compared with the previous year\u2019s record output, improvement in climatic conditions has prevented a sharper decline.<\/p>\n

Farmers say alternating sun and rain cycles over recent months have created ideal conditions for pod ripening, easing concerns over disease outbreaks that threatened crop quality. \u201cThe rain started when it was supposed to. In fact, we\u2019re still having some rain, which is also good for the season,\u201d said Lawrence Afere, founder of Springboard Farmers\u2019 Co-operative of Nigeria and maker of Tiwa Chocolate.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that we\u2019re going to have a kind of elongated harvest season up to around February or March,\u201d Afere noted, explaining that the alternating weather cycles are preventing disease outbreaks and ensuring beans are well dried and stored.\n<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s value addition push hits EU tariff wall for cocoa processors<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

However, looming climate shifts are casting a shadow over the mid-crop and 2027\/2028 prospects, with farmers increasingly worried about the onset of an El Ni\u00f1o pattern expected to hit West Africa next year.\n<\/p>\n

Prolonged dry spells and elevated temperatures typically associated with the climate phenomenon threaten to disrupt flowering in early 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are enjoying good sunshine and moisture right now to dry our beans, but everyone is anxious about next year,\u201d said Felix Oladunjoye, chairman of the Cocoa Processors Association of Nigeria (COPAN). \u201cIf El Ni\u00f1o brings severe dry conditions into early 2027, the heat stress will hit tree yields hard just as the mid-crop tries to take off,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

\u200bThe steady production outlook comes as global markets closely monitor West African cocoa supply following years of heightened price volatility and structural supply deficits.\n<\/p>\n

As harvesting gains momentum, stable output from Nigeria could provide much-needed relief to global supply chains and offer price support for local exporters navigating fluctuating international benchmarks.\n<\/p>\n

Nigeria is the world\u2019s fourth-largest cocoa producer, after C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Ghana and Ecuador, with production of 315,000 tonnes in the 2022\/23 cocoa season, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO).\n<\/p>\n

Nigeria has two cocoa harvest seasons, including the smaller mid-crop from April to June, and the main crop from October to December.<\/p>\n

The main crop accounts for about 70 percent of Nigeria\u2019s cocoa output, while the mid-crop accounts for 30 percent of the total production for the season.\n<\/p>\n

As at the time of writing, a metric ton of cocoa sells for an average of N7.5 million and a kg sells for N7,500 at the farm gate. Globally, a metric ton sells for N4,949 per ton, according to the ICCO daily price.<\/p>\n

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Related News<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJosephine Okojie-Okeiyi<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi is a journalist with over five years\u2019 reporting experience. She writes on industry, agriculture, commodities, climate change, and environmental issues.
\nShe is fellow of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026as the season commences\u00a0 Nigeria\u2019s cocoa farmers expect maincrop production to hold steady this season as favorable weather patterns across key growing regions support pod development, harvesting, and drying. A… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}