History: This is Ikom, a coconut heart in the south-east of Nigeria.
And he experienced an influx.
Pushed by the rise in prices, a cohort of men has mainly changed their career to agriculture.
They are known as “Cocoa Boys”
“If you call me a cocoa boy, I will accept with pleasure.”
Mark Bassey has left his job as a medical laboratory scientist to become a producer in his ancestral home.
“When you hear about this cocoa, there is this mentality, this understanding that comes to you that these guys are big boys.”
The Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, which represents small farmers, says it has seen its members increase by more than 10,000 in 2023-2024.
:: Assin Foso, Ghana
It is a drop in the production of the two largest cocoa exporters in the world, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, has caused an increase in world prices in the chocolate ingredient.
They increased, according to the International Cocoa Organization, or ICCO, from up to $ 2,500 per metric tonne in 2022 to almost $ 11,000 in December 2024.
And it created an opportunity for people like Anyoghe Akwa.
He left Ikom as a young man to study civil engineering. Now he's back.
“I do not leave civilian genius, I love it. But I have more interest in cocoa now because it generates, per year, it generates more money for me.”
When Akwa left a bag of cocoa beans sold between $ 15 and $ 20.
He said that last year, he collected four bags, which each sold between $ 500 and $ 750.
The sale of a bag, he added, corresponded to his annual salary as a civil engineer.
According to ICCO, Nigeria is the fourth cocoa producer in the world – although its production is far behind Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
To stimulate the sector, the government has distributed free seedlings.
It is in parallel with factors such as new cocoa strains that bear fruit in the 18 months and, of course, the influx of new farmers.
Rasheed Adedeji is director of research and strategy at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.
“So assembling all these things, we now think that the level of production of the Nigeria cocoa would have doubled.”
However, a major increase in production is not reflected in official figures.
ADEDEJI said that one of the reasons is that a significant proportion is introduced as a smuggling of Nigeria each year.
