Cocoa overtakes crude oil as Nigeria's major export to Belgium in 2024

Amid the rise in cocoa production and export in Nigeria, shipments of the product to Belgium in 2024 overtook crude oil, Nigeria’s main export product, the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Pieter Leenknegt, has said.

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Nigeria has been experiencing a substantial increase in cocoa export revenue, fuelled by the devaluation of the naira and renewed global demand.

The rise since 2024 is also driven by climatic challenges in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, two top cocoa producers, which have reduced their production capacities.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), cocoa exports rose by 606 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Exports rose from about ₦171 billion in the last quarter of 2023 to ₦1.2 trillion in the last quarter of 2024. The figures are expected to be higher this year as Nigeria generated N1.32 trillion in revenue from cocoa exports in the first quarter of 2025.

Cocoa exports contributed 77 per cent of the total agricultural export of N 1.70 trillion in the first quarter of 2025.

Speaking on the increased export of Nigeria’s cocoa to Belgium, the Belgian ambassador said this presents an opportunity for Belgium to diversify its trade with Nigeria, shifting from its traditional focus on crude oil.

“Nigeria’s exports to Belgium have historically also been mostly crude oil. Now, that is no longer true in 2024, because now cocoa has overtaken crude oil as a main product of export to Belgium,” he said in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

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Last year, Belgium was a top destination country for cocoa shipped from Nigeria.

However, experts have said the changes are not primarily triggered by increased production in Nigeria but rather by the naira devaluation, which has fuelled more exports of the product by farmers and traders. Although there are cocoa processing companies in Nigeria that transform cocoa into finished products like chocolate, many farmers and traders now prefer to export the product so as to earn more from foreign exchange.

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On Belgium’s trade with Nigeria, Mr Leenknegt said, “I often tell Nigerians and Belgians alike, Belgian-Nigerian relations in 2025 are going to be about agriculture and health.”

Meanwhile, refined petroleum imports from Belgium to Nigeria have begun to decline.

Mr Leenknegt said the dip in Nigeria’s import of petroleum products from Belgium is also likely to grow due to the operations of the Dangote Refinery.

He described this as “the Dangote Refinery effect.”