Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Cocoa exports from Nigeria, the world's fourth-biggest producer of the chocolate ingredient, doubled in the second quarter as government incentives boosted production, the Federal Produce Inspection Agency said.

Shipments climbed to 18,743 metric tons between April and June, from 9,110 tons in the same period a year earlier, the Lagos-based FPIA said in a statement today. The data represents beans officially inspected and certified fit for export and don't take into account cocoa smuggled out of the country, the agency said.

``The increase is due to harvests coming in from new farms set up in recent years by farmers who want to take advantage of rising cocoa prices,'' Adekunle Adebambo, an agronomist with the government-run agency, said in a telephone interview.

Nigeria ranks behind Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia as the world's largest cocoa producer, according to the Web site of the International Cocoa Organization. The government has boosted cocoa production by providing farms with quick-maturing seedlings and fertilizers at subsidized prices since 2005, while improved farming methods have also helped.

Exports are usually at their lowest in the second quarter, when the smaller of two annual harvests is in season, Adebambo said. The main-crop harvest runs from September through December.

Nigeria's first-half cocoa exports totaled 90,447 tons, 37 percent more than a year earlier, the FPIA data showed. Last year, exports from the West African country rose to 140,148 tons, from 130,074 tons in 2006.

Production this year is forecast to rise to 173,000 tons, from 160,000 tons in the previous season, according to the International Cocoa Organization.

The following is a monthly breakdown of export data provided by the agency. Figures are in metric tons:

                    2008           2007
January             33,904         31,186
February            28,103         19,791
March               9,700          5,480
April               4,532          2,752
May                 6,401          2,369
June                7,810          3,989

To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Lagos via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 26, 2008 09:57 EDT