Cross River State youths celebrate as Cocoa hit 800, 000 per bag before Christmas
By Raphael Ekpang
It was a celebration galore in Cross River State as a bag of cocoa now sells at eight hundred thousand naira (800, 000) only.
Cocoa beans are the seeds of the cocoa tree Theobroma and they are mostly found in the south west and south south regions of Nigeria.
Cocoa farmers begin the clearing of their farms at the beginning of rainy seasons, May, precisely and in July spray of chemicals intensify all through the season.
However, Mber months (September-December) are considered to be the harvesting period and so it has been years over. Apparently the price of cocoa is souring as youths who are into cocoa business and farming are smiling to their banks on a daily basis
Globally, the current price of cocoa is around $8,130.00 GBP per contract as of December 6, 2024. The 52-week low for cocoa is $3,331.00, while the 52-week high is $10,265.00.
And in Nigeria Cross River State in particular the price just went up to N800, 000 per bag on Saturday, December 7, 2024 and this is good news to farmers and cocoa merchants.
Boki local government area of Cross River State is one of the few places in the state cocoa is farmed and some of the youths who spoke with Core Reporters in a telephone conversation expressed happiness over the current price, saying that it will boost their Christmas celebration.
Mathias Odu said, we are blessed with cocoa and most importantly the price is giving us joy whenever we hear an increase of it. “As I speak to you now, a bag of cocoa is sold at N800, 000 that means if I sell one bag now, I will have eight hundred thousand naira to play around with during the Christmas, of course nothing is as beautiful as that.”
According to Joseph Onah, “Our Christmas celebration is secured because we’ve got cocoa to sell considering the price now. No matter the hardship in the country with cocoa, we are okay.”
Recall that a bag of cocoa was sold at between N1.1m-N1.3m last season, therefore, before the end of January 2025 a bag of cocoa is expected to be sold between N1.3m-N1.5m.
