Nigeria and Cameroon are jointly negotiating with cocoa buyers for a better premium, on the lines of the decision of top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana to get enhanced prices for their cocoa crop. Nigeria is the world’s fourth-largest cocoa producer and Cameron’s cocoa production is substantial contributing smartly to the exchequer and farmers’ income. But the buyers lobby, mostly American and European chocolate makers gang up to beat down the price. Now, countries in Africa have found that an understanding about the price among the major producers can beat the greedy buyers, who have all the tricks up in their sleeves, to keep the farmers at the receiving end. The major producers of Cocoa, West Africa and Latin America, are getting festooned to this approach of price fixation with consensus so that the buyers can have only little leeway to exploit the sellers.
Recently, Ivory Coast and Ghana, who contribute nearly two thirds of global output, have introduced a fixed “living income differential” of US$400 a tonne on all cocoa contracts sold by either country for the 2020-21 season. The present arrangement between Nigeria and Cameroon may take the same route. Though being world’s leading cocoa producers, Nigeria and Cameroon exert limited influence over international prices. Ivory Coast and Ghana had effectively agreed a US$400 per tonne premium above global prices for their cocoa, and Nigeria and Cameroon wanted to follow suit to protect its farmers.
Nigerian cocoa production for 2019-20 could dip about 3-5% to around 305,000 tonnes due to excessive rainfall, as against an estimated 2018-19 output at 310,000 tonnes. The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) puts the 2018-19 forecasts at 250,000 tonnes. The corresponding figures for Cameroon are not known.
