The Cocoa Roundtable Initiative (CORI) has called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene as a sharp decline in cocoa prices continues to hurt farmers across Nigeria. The slump in the global cocoa market has reduced earnings for smallholder farmers, threatening livelihoods and rural economies in major cocoa-producing states.

CORI’s Director-General, Adeola Adegoke, said the drop in producer prices is linked to falling global cocoa values and the volatility of the naira. He stressed that without immediate support, farmers will struggle to afford inputs for the next planting season, which could lower productivity and cut Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings from cocoa. The sector accounted for 42.4% of the N1.04 trillion agricultural exports in Q1 2024, underscoring its importance to non-oil revenue. a736

The group is also pressing for action on the Executive Cocoa Board Bill, which was transmitted to the National Assembly in November 2025 but later withdrawn for corrections. CORI described the bill’s disappearance from the legislative agenda as “unpatriotic” and warned that delaying a regulatory board leaves farmers exposed to poor pricing and weak market coordination. 74b7

To cushion the impact, CORI urged the government to fund the National Task Force on EUDR, subsidize inputs for cocoa farmers, and fast-track the legal framework for a National Cocoa Management Board. The initiative argues that stabilizing the sector will protect a $1bn industry investment and sustain the price gains seen over the past year, when cocoa held steady at not less than 10 million naira per metric tonne.