Lagos, Feb. 5 - Nigeria has banned cocoa farmers from using about 20 agro-chemicals in a bid to comply with European Union quality regulations, the state news agency reported on Tuesday.
The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) threatened last year to blacklist beans and other cocoa-based products from Nigeria, the world's number five grower, over the use of copper sulphate and other banned agro-chemicals used to preserve beans.
In response, Nigeria stopped subsidising the import of some agro-chemicals and set up a committee in August to look into the effect of the farm inputs on cocoa and other crops.
Europe is the main market for Nigerian beans and cocoa products.
Nigeria has approved only 10 out of more than 30 chemicals available in the market. Most of them leave residue in beans and cocoa-based products, the committee secretary Kehinde Ajao said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
"A lot of these chemicals have residue in the food. We have to make sure that the residue has a specific limit and meets the standard," Ajao said.
For now, the committee has recommended "zero limit", which allows maximum residue of 0.1 mg per kg of cocoa, Ajao said. The long-term plan is to establish a laboratory in Nigeria and use standards determined in Nigeria.
Nigeria has seen a sharp increase in output since 2005 when it launched an ambitious cocoa development programme to lift production by supplying improved seedlings free to farmers and subsidising agro-chemicals.
The programme also aimed at encouraging local consumption of cocoa-based products to help depress global supply with the hope of raising international prices.
But while production is rising, domestic consumption remains low and Nigeria exports most of its beans and cocoa-based products to Europe.