Cross-River, Isreali Signs $15m Cocoa City Project

The Cross-River State Government has on Wednesday signed a memorandum with Israeli Bean & Co. Global Ltd.

The agreement which was a full Venture/Public Private Partnership agreement of 15 million dollars was signed in Calabar for the establishment of a special cocoa city project in the state.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Okon Owuna and the Director General of Cocoa Regeneration Agency, Collins Ogar, signed on behalf of the state government in the presence of state Commissioner for Justice, Tanko Ashang.

While on the side of the Isreali, the Managing Partner, LR Group and Bean & Co, Doron Rette, signed on behalf of the company.

Owuna said that the agreement has two components, the Agro Industrial Centre with a processing plant, seedlings nursery and training facility as well as pulp powder and dry cocoa beans for export.

He also said that the second component was the Farmers Out-growers Scheme, which will cover 5,000 to 10,000 hectares of land.

According to him, thousands of farmers will be involved and will operate under the technical protocol of Bean & Co who will buy all their produce consisting of the pods and wet cocoa beans.

The Commissioner said that 65 per cent of the project sum would be covered by Bean & Co and its partners, while the state government would cover the remaining.

“As stated above, this project will increase cocoa farmers’ earnings three times over and increase productivity six times over.

“The project will engage thousands of farmers and employ Crossriverians in the cocoa city plus technology transfer.

“The outgrowing scheme will cover Etung, Ikom, Boki, Obubra, Obudu and Akamkpa which are the cocoa producing local government areas in the state.

“Under the funding proposal, the farmers will receive about N2.4million loan for four years to cover seedlings, pesticides, fertilizers, training, growing protocols and other necessary inputs,” he said.

He added that due to the long gestation and harvest time for cocoa which takes an average of four years, repayment of the loan would commence in the fifth year.

The DG, Cocoa Regeneration Agency, Ogar in his remarks, assured that the Ministry and the Agency would work tirelessly to ensure the success of the project.