Coffee remains a big revenue earner in the world market. But Nigeria’s production has fallen to less than 60,000 metric tonnes yearly. Stakeholders are calling for efforts to reposition the industry to enable the country earn more foreign exchange, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
There is more demand for coffee. It is one of the most widely consumed beverages around the world with an estimated 3.5million cups of coffee consumed worldwide daily. Euro Monitor International predicted that Nigerians would drink more than 1,000 tonnes of coffee this year.
Similarly, Fitch Solutions reports that Nigeria is one of five coffee markets to watch.
According to it, overall consumer coffee spend for Nigeria is set to hit $286.8million (N117.6billion) in 2023.
Despite this, farmers are not tapping the potential as the produce has seen a significant dip in production and export.
As the world coffee output continues to increase, Nigeria’s production continues to dwindle, with the local demand of the coffee industry put at $60million.
Analysts said the country produces less than 60,000 tonnes of coffee annually.
Despite the fact that states such as Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Edo, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Kaduna, Benue, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, have potential to produce coffee, Nigeria is not tapping the great potential.
According to statistics from Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), between 2010 and 2015, about N1.5billion worth of coffee products were imported into the country.
Several factors have been attributed to the country’s dwindling production level, majority of which have forced farmers to abandon coffee for other crops to make ends meet.
According to analysts, most of the coffee plots are also old and farmers have suspended major activities on their farms.
The Secretary-General, National Coffee/Tea Association of Nigeria (NC/TAN), Dr Usman Hassan, said due to poor prices, some farmers pluck their tea, pound it locally and dry it on the ground to sell, saying: “This is not conventional but because of the demand for tea in Nigeria, it is still marketable.
“Today, Nestlé is anchoring coffee production in Côte d’Ivoire. They bring this coffee to Lagos and process it and sell to Nigerians. They even have a platform on financing coffee production in Ivory Coast.
“Why are they neglecting Nigerian farmers? Coffee/tea alone can employ more than 20 million people if attention is given to it. Twenty-one states, including Abuja, can production coffee in Nigeria,” he stressed.
To revamp the sector, President, Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Dr Victor Iyama urged the government to support massive coffee production and productivity improvement efforts throughout the whole coffee growing destinations.
As it has potential for coffee production, he said the nation has set a goal of increasing coffee export to support its economic development.
Speaking with The Nation, Iyama said various measures must be undertaken to boost coffee production. Among these, is working with coffee farmers and others in the industry to meet the country’s goals through improved technologies of coffee seedlings.
In addition, he said the government must endeavour to implement coffee seedlings improvement, supply the required inputs and carry out wide public mobilisation and awareness creation training.
Concerned by the dwindling fortune of the industry, thousands of people in Central and West Africa are benefiting from Nestlé’s efforts to boost sustainable coffee from bean to cup. These include coffee farmers to salespeople. The company has, therefore, committed to provide sustainable farming, supply, production and consumption across its coffee supply chain.
Nestlé agronomists also visit participants’ farms and teach them how to grow coffee more sustainably, based on Nescafé’s best farming practices.
As part of the plan, by this year, the company is committed to provide farmers worldwide with over 27 million high-yielding, disease-resistant coffee plantlets, developed by the Nestlé Research and Development Centre in Abidjan.
In line with this, the Inter-African Coffee Organisation (IACO) has joined forces with the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and the International Coffee Organization (ICO) to launch the $950 million ‘Africa Coffee Facility (ACF) to boost Africa’s coffee industry and achieve a 40 percent increase in high-quality exports worth $5 billion a year.
The ACF is projected to transform Africa’s coffee production – currently 10 percent of the global coffee market – into a vibrant and resilient industry again.
Coffee is a primary source of income for more than 12 million households in Africa and contributes a significant proportion of tax income in a number of these countries.
IACO Secretary-General Dr Fred Kawuma said: “Africa produces some of the highest-quality and much-loved coffee in the world but its contribution to the global coffee trade has declined significantly since the 1970s when nearly a third of all.
“The ACF is an ambitious fund, which seeks to attract private and public sector investment to transform Africa’s coffee industry from a subsistence to a commercial or entrepreneurial approach where millions of smallholder coffee farms will see their livelihoods significantly enhanced.‘’
The first-ever Donors and Partners Conference has been held under the theme “Financing the African coffee value chain through the Africa Coffee Facility” was attended by development partners, bilateral donors, banks, foundations, private sector and the coffee farming community, among other stakeholders.
It is anticipated that the ACF,which will be hosted by Afreximbank, will also develop and promote domestic consumption of coffee set against the challenges of climate change and the need to empower younger farmers and women into the sector.
Key aims of the ACF – over its 10-year tenure – will be to invest $500million on building a sustainable coffee supply, $100million on improving demand, market linkages and investments, $200million on putting in place climate change adaptation and environmentally resilient practices and $150million promoting knowledge management and dissemination.
Partners and potential donors at the forum heard how Africa’s coffee value chain must see vast improvements in production and cooperative systems, many of which have either deteriorated or collapsed, in order to compete in the global market place.
The Chief Economist, ICO, Dr Denis Seudieu, said: “Although many initiatives have been taken in some countries, many challenges still hamper the achievement of a sustainable coffee sector in Africa.
However, there’s opportunity to move the African coffee sector from subsistence to an entrepreneurial one. This will enable our farmers to have sustainable income generation and a long-term security of their livelihoods.”
Part of the ACF’s mission, in looking to improve the quality of Africa’s coffee free from crop pests and diseases, making it safe to consumers – an area in which CABI specialises.
The Regional Director, CABI Africa, Dr Morris Akiri, said: “CABI is delighted to be working in partnership to help create an African coffee industry which is resilient to climate change and strong enough to compete and succeed in a highly competitive and often volatile global market.”
He added that the organisation will not only work to help put the latest knowledge and skills on coffee pest management into farmers hands in the field but also to disseminate information, skills and best practice along all points of the coffee value chain.
It is expected that the initial funding of almost $1billion will be achieved in the first five years with more to follow as the fund gains momentum.
The ACF plans to enable 50 percent of farmers to plant climate-smart materials as part of a strategy to see one out of every five coffee farmer adopting climate smart productive systems. By doing so, it is envisaged that farmers’vulnerability to weather events, such as floods and drought, will be reduced by 25 percent.
CABI, working as partners of the ACF, brings a range of expertise along the coffee value chain including past experience of guaranteeing credit to coffee farmers in Ethiopia and Rwanda by improving processing practices by smallholders, boosting coffee production in Kenya and Malawi through a combination of new planting materials, improved fertiliser use and better pest control measures, and helping farmers to adapt to climate change.