Nigeria Cocoa Main Crop Harvest Threatened by Flood, Disease
- The southeastern cocoa region could lose 40% of its harvest
- Black pod diesease is spreading rapidly in the damp weather
Workers harvest cocoa fruit from trees on a cocoa plantation.
Photographer: Jose Cendon/Bloomberg
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Nigeria’s cocoa harvest is threatened by floods and an outbreak of fungal disease as heavy rains fall in the West African country’s main growing regions, the cocoa association said.
“It has been raining heavily and nonstop, almost daily since late July,” Sayina Riman, president of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria, said by phone from the southeastern cocoa-trading hub of Ikom, where he runs a 112-hectare (276-acre) farm. “Just as flooding is threatening the survival of the cocoa trees, excessive rain is boosting the spread of black pod disease.”