Ibadan, Nigeria, Dec. 12 - Nigeria's cocoa production in the 2007-08 season (October-September) is expected to be between 220,000-230,000 metric tons, Robo Adhuze, a spokesman of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said Wednesday.
Adhuze said new crop plantings by the National Cocoa Development Committee, or NCDC, in the 14 cocoa-producing states in the country, have started bearing fruit and this would boost output.
He said besides new plantings, several hectares of cocoa farms were rehabilitated by the NCDC, and the crop from such farms was being harvested.
The NCDC, established in December 1999, has plans to increase Nigeria's cocoa production to 320,000 tons in the short-term and to 600,000 tons in the long-term, partly through the sale of chemicals, fetrilizers and other inputs at a 50% discount.
"The impact of the rehabilitation, the new plantings and sale of farm chemicals, fertilizer and equipment at subsidized rates to farmers should be seen in the current season," Adhuze told Dow Jones Newswires.
Adhuze said 2007-08 output would have been higher but excessive rainfall in the southwest and southeast cocoa belts resulted in high incidence of the black pod disease.
Adhuze said harvesting of the 2007-08 main cocoa crop was continuing in the southwest, and would end in early February.
An official of the Cocoa Merchants Association of Nigeria in Akure, capital of Ondo state, said farmers have now harvested around 60% of this season`s main crop and expect the harvest to be over by end of next month or early February.
Adhuze said harvesting of the midcrop cocoa would begin on schedule in April in the southwest cocoa belt.
"We expect a very good harvest," he said.
Adhuze said intensive rainfall is ongoing in Cross River state, the largest producer in the southeast cocoa belt, where the main crop harvest was nearing an end. He said midcrop harvest in the state should start in late February or March.
Nigeria is the fourth largest cocoa producer in the world after Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia.