Agric Ministry, NEPC Join Stakeholders to Strengthen Cocoa and Coffee Industries

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council have joined other stakeholders to advance strategies aimed at strengthening Nigeria's cocoa and coffee industries and repositioning the two crops within Africa's fast-evolving export landscape.

The engagement brought together regulators, exporters, producer associations and development partners to examine the constraints holding back both value chains and to agree on practical interventions that can lift output, quality and export earnings.

Cocoa and coffee occupy very different positions in Nigeria's non-oil export basket. Cocoa is the country's leading agricultural export by value and a critical source of foreign exchange, while coffee production has long languished far below historic levels despite favourable growing conditions in the country's highland areas.

The joint push comes as African cocoa and coffee stakeholders intensify efforts to protect the interests of traditional producers amid tightening sustainability rules and shifting global demand patterns.

The regulatory backdrop is tightening

The most immediate pressure on Nigeria's cocoa sector is the European Union's deforestation regulation, which requires traceability, due diligence and proof that supply chains are deforestation-free. With the EU accounting for the majority of Nigeria's cocoa exports, compliance is not optional. Industry estimates suggest that a large share of Nigerian cocoa could struggle to meet the new requirements without rapid farm mapping and a credible national traceability platform — a gap that has already drawn warnings from exporters and the NEPC.

Coffee faces a different problem. Nigeria was once a notable African producer, but output collapsed over decades as farmers switched to more lucrative crops and investment dried up. Rebuilding the sector requires planting material, agronomy support and guaranteed markets — the same building blocks that a coordinated strategy would need to assemble.

Why coordination matters

Both industries are fragmented across smallholders who produce the bulk of output but capture a small share of final value. Without aggregation, traceability and access to premium markets, producers remain price-takers exposed to volatile global benchmarks. Bringing the agriculture ministry, NEPC and private operators into one framework is an attempt to align planting, quality standards, processing and export promotion rather than treating each as a separate problem.

What success would look like

For cocoa, the near-term test is compliance: whether Nigerian beans continue to access European buyers as the deforestation rules bite, and whether value addition — grinding, processing and premium product — moves onshore. For coffee, the test is more basic: whether planting and replanting translate into rising output over the next few seasons. The strategies advanced this week matter only if they are backed by financing and time-bound implementation.