Cocoa consumption increases libido - Erelu Obada

Erelu ObadaErelu Olusola Obada, the Deputy Governor of Osun State and Chairman, Alternative Uses of Cocoa, a subcommittee of the National Cocoa Development Committee and Chairman, National Planning Committee of the 4th National Cocoa Day, in an interview with journalists, including Sunday Tribune’s Tayo Ligali, in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, speaks on efforts being made by NCDC, to bring cocoa back to prominence, the health benefits of cocoa and other sundry issues. Exerpts:

Achievements of National Cocoa Development Committee since inception?
Prior to our coming on board, you will remember that cocoa used to be one of the major foreign exchange earners for this country, but farmers no longer were interested really, in producing cocoa because by that time, the cocoa marketing board hadbeen disbanded and Nigeria’s cocoa had suffered, quality-wise in the international market such that our cocoa which used to command premium price no longer did so because everybody wanted to fill contracts.

When we joined in 2003, we thought there was a need to look for alternative funding for cocoa apart from what cocoa exporters used to pay. We thought that we should raise money to also pursue some of the goals and the objectives of the committees, this brought about the Idea of the National Cocoa Day. The Initial one was to raise fund but after that, it has become a yearly celebration by all cocoa farmers, exporters, processors, anybody who has anything to do with the cocoa industry in Nigeria. When we kicked off in 2004, the three years variety seedling was new but now we are talking about increased production, as at today, 35 million hybrid seedlings of three years variety had been given out free of charge to cocoa farmers. Many of the old cocoa farms had been rehabilitated and agro chemcials given to farmers at 60 per cent subsidy.

Now, the reason we are canvasing for incrreasing production is the fact that Nigeria is the third largest producer of cocoa in Africa after Ivory Coast and Ghana. Ivory Coast today does about 1.5 million metric tonnes. Ghana is doing about 800 thousand metric tonnes.

Today Nigeria is doing about 385 thousand metric tonnes. I think in year 1999 or 2000, Nigeria was doing about 170,000 metric tonnes which means that we have preached that gospel of increased production, we have encouraged the farmers and today we’re doing about 385,000 metric tonnes which by the time the three years seedlings gestate, we should be hitting about 600,000 metric tonnes in the next two years, give or take two years. By year 2010-2011, we should be doing what Ghana is doing. By the way, we are also the 4th largest cocoa producing nation in the world, now we have Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Ghana and Nigeria.

Why the shift from increased production to consumption?
I will tell you why our theme today has shifted from production to consuming the beans ourselves. I just told you that we’ve given 35 million seedlings of the hybrid variety to farmers. Today, we also have the hybrid seedlings of 18 months, which means we’re going to have lots of cocoa on our hands. We are already looking forward and planning ahead that we do not want to send all these cocoa abroad to the international market, the reason being that it will depress prices, then our farmers will become discouraged all over again. We don’t want that. Having now realised the nutritional importance of cocoa to the body, we know that if Nigerians realise the importance of cocoa to the body, they will not even want us to send out a single bean out of this country and that is backed up by medical research and it is authoritative.

We’re now canvassing for the increased local consumption of cocoa. This will do various things for us. One, our cocoa processing factories will be put to work once again, many of them had gone moribund before but now they’re coming back to life. Two, it ‘ll generate employment for our people when these factories are at work. Three, our cocoa in the international market will command better prices because if there is less supply going out, because we’re using about 50 per cent of what we produce locally, the rest 50 per cent will command better price because we’ve not sent all out. So supply is being minimised the demand then will be greater than supply that means we will get more money for our cocoa and then, the most beautiful aspect is that Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) has come out with about 20 different products that you can use cocoa to make. We’ve chocolate,wine, cosmetics, animal feeds, etc. Which means small and medium scale enterprises can spring up around cocoa, this is a veritable source of wealth creation for our people and employment also.

Now to the health benefit of cocoa to the body, I’m not sure whether you have seen the cocoa powder, 100 per cent cocoa powder, not the ones used to make beverages that contains 5 per cent of cocoa and the rest is sugar and milk. I’m talking about 100 per cent cocoa powder, now, produced locally in Nigeria, taken once or twice a day will prevent diabetes, hypertension or high blood pressure and heart related diseases by the fact that it clears the arteries of fatty deposits so that the blood flows better. I’m not a scientist but all these are documented. In the olden days, the Mexican empire call cocoa, ‘the food of the gods’, because if you take cocoa in the morning, you could stay without eating anything all day. And it increases the libido of men. Those who have heart problem, diabetes and high blood pressure should be encouraged to take cocoa powder at least once a day, they will find out in the shortest possible time, how good it is for the body.

And this is the message we’re trying to send out to Nigerians and that is why the theme of this year’s National Cocoa Day is called “Cocoa for Health and Wealth”.

It is good for your body and you make money from it. One of the things we’ve benefited from all these cocoa programmes is the fact that the youth are now interested in cocoa production and are working with cocoa which hitherto was not so. You all remember that our fathers used to plant cocoa in prepration for their retirement in 10 years time because at that time, cocoa will take about 10 years to start fruting so it ‘ll just coincide with when they are retiring and then they start making some little money from it.

Two years ago, you expressed fear that the end users at the international market were looking for alternative to cocoa, if eventually such is found what will be the fate of Nigeria’s $300 million foreign exchange earning?
First of all, I must give you the happy news that they have not yet found an alternative to cocoa. They have tried but have not found it. As you know, they consume what they don’t produce, we produce what we don’t consume and that is why we are at the mercy of those who buy from us and that is where consumption comes in, local consumption. If you consume what you produce, I tell you, those who are working with the cocoa will earn even much more than this $300 million that we derive f rom cocoa export because we will be feeding the local industry, our processing firms will still process and we will still consume, we will be working with the powder, the pod husk.If you look at the industry, it is only the bean that we’re getting the $300 million from but when we work with everything that is derivable from cocoa, the bean, pod and husk, we should be getting much more than the $300 milion because it is a very, very big industry.

But it seems that we need to orientate ourselves to see that which is good in our country for the benefit of our people and not just rely on imported things alone, that may not even be good for us. God has blessed us so much but we don’t appreciate these things. I think we should look inwards.

Talking about the consumption of cocoa, most of the end products made by Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria like wine, chocolate, bread, detergents, cocoa mix powder (beverage) etc are only sold at trade fairs. When will all these things be available in the market?
Actually, we held a seminar three years ago on the popularisation and commercialisation of cocoa and its by products and we invited all the stakeholders in the cocoa industry. We wanted to bring the awareness to Nigerians about what cocoa can be used for, so that was done then but we need to keep on popularising these things and we have told NCDC members to inform their people that they can send some of their people from their various states for training at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria on how to produce all these items. So, we will keep on making the publicity in the hope that Nigerian will take it up, because it’s a whole new ball game. I mean the advantages are limitless and I think we should grab all these beautiful things with both hands.

Don’t you think it’s high time Nigeria stopped exporting raw materials and start exporting finished products?
That is where the cocoa processing companies come in because it does not augur well for us, when we just send out our beans like that without any value addition whatsoever but if we can add some value to our cocoa before exporting the beans, then we should command better prices at the international market. I’m talking of when you convert your cocoa bean to cocoa powder, cake, butter, then you have added value which means you should earn more when you sell these things abroad.

How happy is a cocoa farmer today?
Let me say he is happier today than he was five, six, seven years back and he sees the future in his vocation which is cocoa production and those in processing also now see a future in processing. And I want consumers now to embrace the consumption of cocoa.