February 16, 2009 - cocoa processors are in urgent need of government grants to help the industry weather rising energy and transportation costs, said Abimbola Oladapo, president of the Cocoa Processors Association of Nigeria. “If the government makes the grants available to us, the question of closing down factories does not arise", he said.
Most of Nigeria’s cocoa plants have seen processing costs rise to about $7,000 per metric ton on rising diesel and transportation costs, compared with an export price of $5,000 a ton, Oladapo said.
Nigeria, the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer, has seen export income slump as the global financial crisis curbs demand for its commodity exports, and particularly oil, which makes up more than 90 percent of exports.
Prices, meanwhile, have spiraled as the Nigerian naira lost 20 percent of its value following a central bank decision in November to allow the currency to depreciate as the slump in oil prices cut foreign revenue.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos the Johannesburg bureau at areed12@bloomberg.net
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