Nigeria-Cocoa prices rose further in Nigeria this week due to the depreciation of the naira currency and a shortage of beans, industry officials and traders said Wednesday.
“The naira has continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar; farmers should be a major beneficiary of this while…the exporters too might be well off–but the margin now is determined by the exchange rate,” said Sayina Riman, a former president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria.
Last week, graded cocoa–which has been certified as fit for export–traded in Nigeria for the first time at 3 million Nigerian naira ($3,947) a metric ton. The crop hit the NGN3 million per ton mark in Cross River State, while prices remained steady in the state this week, according to a trader.
In Ondo state, the largest cocoa producer in Nigeria, the chocolate ingredient also fetched NGN2.9 million a ton to NGN3 million a ton from NGN2.8 million a ton to NGN2.85 million last week, said Toba Adenowuro, a former state cocoa official.
“The prices depend on quantity and quality of beans,” said Adenowuro, referencing the shortage of cocoa in the market due to the current low harvest and lack of adequate sunshine to dry the beans.
Cocoa prices are also higher at NGN2.8 million a ton in Osun, the country’s third-largest cocoa producer in the southwest region, compared with NGN2.6 million a ton last week, said a cocoa merchant in Ile-Ife, a major cocoa-trading center in the state. In Abia State, in the southeast region, cocoa is selling for NGN2.7 million against NGN2.5 million per ton a week ago, according to Mazi Uche, an official of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria.
In Edo, the largest cocoa producer in Nigeria’s midwest region, the crop is trading at NGN2.7 million a ton versus NGN2.6 million a ton last week, a trader said. The chocolate ingredient is selling for NGN2.6 million a ton in Ogun, a producing state in the southwest region, from NGN2.5 million a ton last week, a CAN official in the state said.
Source: Market Screener
