U.S Mission highlights growing demand for Nigerian cocoa as Tinubu’s government pushes to end raw bean exports and boost local processing……
Nigeria’s cocoa bean exports to the United States rose by 554 per cent to $142 million in 2025, up from $21.7 million recorded in 2024, signalling a sharp increase in demand for the country’s agricultural produce in the international market.
The figures, disclosed by the United States Mission in Nigeria in a social media post on Tuesday, highlight the growing export potential of the country’s cocoa industry and its capacity to generate foreign exchange.
“This is just to US, we have not talked about Europe, China, India etc. Nigeria is rising, position yourself appropriately,” the mission stated.
The development comes as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to transform the cocoa industry by encouraging domestic processing, expanding manufacturing capacity and retaining more value from agricultural exports within the country.
In July, President Bola Tinubu announced plans to end the export of raw cocoa beans, arguing that Nigeria should no longer continue shipping unprocessed commodities abroad while importing finished products such as chocolate.
The President stressed that the country must move beyond exporting raw agricultural produce and focus on developing local industries capable of creating jobs, attracting investment and increasing foreign exchange earnings.
Represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, at the 2026 Cocoa Value Addition Summit in Abuja, Tinubu reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening the cocoa value chain through local processing and manufacturing.
The summit, themed ‘From Bean to Brand: The Bean in My Hand, The Brand in Our Future’, brought together government officials, state governors, development partners, financiers, cocoa-producing countries and other industry stakeholders to develop a roadmap for the continent’s cocoa sector.
Speaking at the event, Kyari noted that Africa accounts for about 70 per cent of global cocoa production but captures only a small share of the more than $130 billion worldwide chocolate industry.
He attributed the imbalance to the concentration of processing, branding and manufacturing activities outside the continent, leaving cocoa-producing countries with limited returns despite their significant contribution to global supply.
According to the minister, expanding local processing would enable Nigeria to capture a greater share of the value generated from cocoa, while creating employment opportunities and encouraging investment in manufacturing.
The surge in exports to the United States provides a boost for Nigeria’s cocoa industry, even as the government seeks to shift the sector away from dependence on raw commodity exports towards higher-value finished products.
However, sustaining the gains will depend on the country’s ability to strengthen local processing capacity, attract investment and develop competitive cocoa-based industries that can serve both domestic and international markets.
