Nigeria's cocoa bean exports to the United States rose by 554 per cent to $142m in 2025, up from $21.7m in 2024, according to the United States Mission in Nigeria. The sharp increase signals strong demand for Nigerian cocoa in the international market and underscores the country's potential to earn more foreign exchange from the agricultural sector. The US Mission highlighted the figures in a social media post, noting that the export value had risen significantly within a year and emphasising that the figure represented only shipments to America, with additional markets in Europe, China and India not yet accounted for.
The surge in cocoa exports arrives as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to transform Nigeria's cocoa industry through local processing, industrialisation and value addition. In July, President Bola Tinubu announced plans to end the export of raw cocoa beans, arguing that Nigeria should no longer ship unprocessed agricultural produce abroad while importing finished products such as chocolate. The President stressed the need for the country to move away from exporting raw commodities without capturing their full economic value, emphasising the importance of developing domestic industries, creating jobs, attracting investments and boosting foreign exchange earnings.
At the Cocoa Value Addition Summit 2026 in Abuja, represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Abubakar Kyari, Tinubu reiterated the government's commitment to building a stronger 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 ministers, state governors, development partners, financiers, cocoa-producing countries and industry stakeholders to develop a new roadmap for Africa's cocoa industry.
Kyari highlighted a significant disparity in the global cocoa market. Africa produces about 70 per cent of the world's cocoa but earns only a small share of the more than $130bn global chocolate industry, the minister said. He attributed this gap to the fact that much of the processing, branding and manufacturing of cocoa products takes place outside the continent, leaving producing countries with limited economic benefits despite their substantial contribution to global supply. According to the minister, Nigeria's push for local value addition aims to reverse this trend by ensuring that a greater share of the wealth generated from cocoa is retained within the country.
For Nigerian savers and investors, the surge in cocoa exports and the government's value-addition strategy offer potential growth opportunities in the agricultural sector, though returns will depend on successful implementation of local processing plans and market access.