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TimesLIVE
06-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Thousands switch careers to grow cocoa in Nigeria, drawn by high prices
Growing up in Nigeria's cocoa farming area of Ikom in the southeast, Anyoghe Akwa did not see much of a future so he decided to move away, study civil engineering and carve out a career in the construction industry. That was until 2023 when he heard cocoa prices were surging and farmers back home in Ikom were making a fortune. 'We saw 20-year-olds who never attended university generating a lot of money from cocoa farming, while those of us who were aspiring for a PhD were struggling,' said Akwa, 47, who had enrolled in a doctorate programme. 'So we started to come back and opened our own farms.' Akwa is one of a cohort of new entrants to the sector, mostly men, who have switched to farming or other jobs to cash in on the cocoa price surge. The Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria, which represents smallholder farmers, saw its membership increase by more than 10,000 in 2023-2024. In Ikom, in Cross River State on the border with Cameroon, most farmlands are owned by the community. Under an ancestral custom, a person with family roots in the community can present a bottle of wine, an offering of food and a modest sum of about 5,000 naira (R56.85) to receive a plot of land. Akwa had inherited farmland from his father and added more through community allocation so he could plant more cacao trees whose seeds are processed into cocoa and chocolate. 'Last year, I harvested four bags. I sold the first bag for 800,000 naira (R9,096) and the others between 1m (R11,369) and 1.2m naira (R13,634) per bag. It was a lot of money,' he said, noting that sale of just one bag matched his annual salary as a civil engineer. At the top price, Akwa was selling cocoa for 20 times its value in 2022, when the price of one 64kg bag of beans was 60,000 naira (R682.46), according to local growers. A drop in output from Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's top two cocoa exporters which together account for 50% of global production, drove prices up from $2,200 (R40,182) — $2,500 (R45,662) per tonne in 2022 to nearly $11,000 (R200,926) in December 2024, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), an inter-governmental body. The price surge coincided with Nigeria's worst economic crisis in more than three decades, with record numbers of people being plunged into poverty. Those producing cocoa were largely protected and helped by a devaluation of the naira that made exports more competitive. Growers are not the only beneficiaries. The cocoa business also involves factors, or middlemen between farmers and licensed buying agents (LBA), who warehouse the beans and sell on to exporters. Ndubuisi Nwachukwu, 48, made the leap from banker to LBA in 2022, inspired by a business mentor. His timing turned out to be ideal. 'The income I've made these few years as an LBA, if you add up all the salary I earned as a banker, it is not up to it,' he said. In Ikom and other cocoa-producing areas, the newly affluent cocoa beneficiaries are shaking up local economies and driving up housing costs. Mark Bassey, 41, left a low-paying job as a medical laboratory scientist to become a grower in his ancestral home. As a boy, Bassey followed his mother to the cocoa plantation, so the skills were familiar to him. Like Akwa, he had wanted something different and had studied science at university, but he found it impossible to make a good wage. 'I know I will still go back into my profession because of my love for it, but for now I want to focus on farming,' said Bassey, adding he has quadrupled his income. Nigeria is the world's fourth-largest cocoa producer, according to the ICCO, but its output of 315,000 tonnes was far behind its West African rivals Ivory Coast and Ghana, at 2,241,000 and 654,000 respectively. The influx of new farmers, coupled with new cocoa strains that bear fruit within 18 months and government efforts to boost the sector by handing out free seedlings, should be driving up output, but this is not reflected in official statistics. 'Putting all these things together, by now we believe Nigeria's cocoa production level would have doubled,' said Rasheed Adedeji, director of research and strategy at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN). One reason is a significant proportion of Nigerian cocoa beans, about 200,000 tonnes a year, are smuggled out of the country, he said. The CRIN has received more than 500,000 requests for new cocoa seedlings so far this year, enough to cover 400,000ha of farmland, triple the demand seen in the same period last year. Still, some of the new growers are hedging their bets. Akwa shuttles between his farm and various construction sites where he still directs teams of workers and foremen. 'I don't sleep because I have to keep calling them to see if they have done this or that,' he said. But if prices hold, he sees a long-term future in cocoa. 'With what I'm seeing, it's possible that I would switch to cocoa farming full-time.'
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Modest Cocoa Surplus to Ease Record Global Shortage, ICCO Says
(Bloomberg) -- Global cocoa shortages are set to ease this season into a small surplus following three years of shortages, providing limited relief to strained stockpiles. Cuts to Section 8 Housing Assistance Loom Amid HUD Uncertainty Remembering the Landscape Architect Who Embraced the City NYC Office Buildings See Resurgence as Investors Pile Into Bonds Hong Kong Joins Global Stadium Race With New $4 Billion Sports Park NJ Transit to Deploy Customer-Service Teams After Record Delays Supply will surpass demand by 142,000 tons in the 2024-25 year, the International Cocoa Organization said in its first estimate for the current season that runs through September. The surplus comes as higher prices have boosted production and harmed demand. 'High cocoa prices which have prevailed for the past several years have incentivized farmers to put in more efforts and resources in cocoa farming despite the challenges they face,' the ICCO said. 'On the contrary, declines in demand are expected as high cost of raw materials for cocoa users seems to be causing reduced demand.' The ICCO estimates production to rise 7.8% to 4.84 million tons in 2024-25. Grindings — a proxy for consumption — are seen falling 4.8%. Still, the increase may not be enough to replenish low inventories after last year's record deficit, and market players including Barry Callebaut AG, the world's biggest cocoa processor, see potential for further tightness. Supply fell short of demand in the 2023-24 season by 441,000 tons, the ICCO said, revising its estimate slightly higher from a prior forecast of 478,000 tons. Cocoa futures surged to a record of over $12,000 a ton in New York in December, driven by renewed supply fears in Ivory Coast and Ghana, where the majority of the crop is grown. However, prices have fallen about 16% this month as the prospects of even higher chocolate prices sour the demand picture. Rich People Are Firing a Cash Cannon at the US Economy—But at What Cost? Trump's SALT Tax Promise Hinges on an Obscure Loophole Walmart Wants to Be Something for Everyone in a Divided America Warner Bros. Movie Heads Are Burning Cash, and Their Boss Is Losing Patience OXO Fought Back Against the Black Spatula Panic. People Defected Anyway ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
03-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Betting On The Future: How Sportradar Merges Sports, AI And Fan Engagement
To learn more about Sportradar, click here. NEWMEDIAWIRE) - In a world where competing trends and technologies vie for the attention of an increasingly atomized audience, sports has an opportunity like no other. Back in 2018, ICCO, a global organization for public-relations consultancies, conducted a massive survey of 113,932 digital consumers around the world. It found that 85% of all internet users surveyed reported watching at least one sport, either online or on television. This attachment to sports spectating has made it unique – other cultural phenomena like music and film do not consistently draw such massive viewing figures. In fact, 75 of the 100 most-watched primetime telecasts of 2024 were sporting events. And with the repeal of the federal ban on sports betting in the U.S. also in 2018, the opportunities to engage those sports viewers online have since grown tremendously. This is because an ever-increasing number of people are shifting their viewing methods from linear TV towards online streaming. But where things get even more exciting is with the recent development – and increasing deployment – of Generative AI, which will power sports' interactions with fans. At the forefront of bringing this innovation to the sports sector is Switzerland-based Sportradar Group (NASDAQ: SRAD). Throughout its 20-plus-year history, sports technology company Sportradar says it has been gathering, parsing and innovating through sports data to become the leading technology partner to sportsbooks worldwide. Through its client relationships with global brands such as Flutter (the parent company of FanDuel), DraftKings and Bet365 and others, it provides services to the biggest betting operators in the world, helping them create new, enriched experiences for sports fans and bettors. Through its partnerships with major sports leagues and federations like the NBA, the MLB, the NHL, the ATP, Bundesliga and UEFA, it instantaneously draws data and content from inside the action itself. And through relationships with media companies like FOX Sports, it means sports viewers can get in-depth insights – in real time – from every game. These partnerships mean Sportradar is an important service provider to the sports economy. For many years it has used machine-learning and artificial-intelligence techniques, and it is now branching into computer vision to enhance and accelerate its base data-gathering processes. This deep sector experience and technological expertise mean it is well placed to harness fans' attachment to their sports, bringing them ever closer to the games they love. According to Sportradar's Chief Technology and Chief AI Officer, Behshad Behzadi, a recent hire from Google's AI leadership team, the way it is doing that is through three emerging trends in technology to create 'hypersmart, hyperpersonalized and hyperimmersive' content. The first, hypersmart, relates to the sports 'brain' powered by Gen AI. This is the fundamental technology that makes everything else possible. It is what creates the connections needed to truly enhance the experience for the sports fan. It does this by making every piece of actionable data – every useful insight and piece of analysis – instantly available at the fingertips of the fan through the products it sells to betting operator and media clients. The second, hyperpersonalization, is the memory function in the relationship with the fan. By understanding viewers' tastes and preferences, their likes and dislikes, the sports brain can serve their needs like an expert Maître d' does his regular customers at a top restaurant. This might mean providing automated, AI commentaries with a bias towards a particular team. It might mean those commentaries being delivered in a different language or by a particular celebrity voice, again generated by AI. Or it might even mean personalizing the content of the commentary according to the individual fan's familiarity with the sport – an expert soccer 'ultrafan' will need less explanation of the basics than a first-time viewer. The AI can solve for this. And the third, hyperimmersion, is about delivering deeply engaging interactive experiences to the platforms fans are on. The extreme version could be futuristic augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR), but, right now, smartphones are the primary connection. Hyperimmersive content could mean creating custom viewing angles and dynamic animation overlays inside the action. Because data can now be captured, analyzed and turned into viewing experiences faster than ever before, fans can engage with the action ever more intimately. Generative AI makes all this possible, and it is an enormous opportunity for Sportradar. This is because these three converging trends will themselves drive the increasing convergence of the three previously distinct worlds of sports, media and betting into a largely new form of entertainment altogether, the company believes. This is again where Sportradar is confident it stands to benefit – by sitting at the intersection of these three elements. With targeted innovations around fan engagement – proprietary products that are drawing fans ever closer to their sports – it says it is a critical partner to the entire sports value chain. These include: ad:s, a programmatic advertising platform that connects betting operators with individual consumers; 4Sight, a tool overlaying data and insights into the action in real time; and emBET, delivering in-play betting activity straight into the sports stream. Through its partnership with the NBA, Sportradar recently launched some of these tools for the start of the 2024-2025 season. Gen AI, AR and VR technologies and others are expected to help increase audience sizes, fans' dwell time in the action and their in-game wallet spend, all by growing the breadth of opportunities for interaction. This in turn, is expected to drive the opportunity sports have to grow their already vast reach. Sportradar's revenues and earnings are growing in turn. Year-over-year revenues to the three-month period ending in September 2024, the most recently reported, had grown 27% versus the 2023 equivalent. The company expects 2024's full-year turnover to grow by 24% against 2023's – and for full-year Adjusted EBITDA to grow by 'at least' 29%. A hypersmart, hyperpersonalized and hyperimmersive sports ecosystem will work to drive a hyperefficient, convergent sports-betting-media economy. Sportradar expects its burgeoning suite of sports technology solutions at the heart of it.
