Nigeria Cocoa Prices Rise in Multiple States

By Obafemi Oredein

Special to Dow Jones Newswires

IBADAN, Nigeria–Cocoa prices increased this week in multiple Nigerian states, industry officials and traders said Wednesday, citing depreciation of the country’s currency and a shortage of cocoa.

In the Nigerian state of Ondo, the country’s biggest cocoa producer, graded cocoa–which has been certified as fit for export–is trading at 4.7 million Nigerian naira ($5,530) a metric ton, compared with NGN4 million to NGN4.5 million a ton last week, a trader said.
The chocolate ingredient fetched NGN4.6 million a ton to NGN4.7 million a ton in Cross River, the country’s second-largest cocoa-producing state, according to a cocoa merchant. Last week, the crop traded at NGN3.9 million a ton to NGN4 million a ton.
Cocoa is selling at NGN4.5 million a ton versus NGN4 million a ton a week ago in Abia, Cocoa Association of Nigeria official Mazi Uche said.
In Ogun, in Nigeria’s southwest, cocoa is trading at NGN4.4 million a ton to NGN4.5 million a ton from NGN4.2 million a ton last week, trader Nojeem Olomide said.