Review of Marketing Board Policy: Comparative Analysis of Cocoa Pricing Eras in Nigeria

The study focuses on reviewing the marketing policies with the specific interest in comparing the price of cocoa during marketing board era with that of the post-marketing board era. The study objectives include examining the prevailing economic situations; comparing the producer and consumer prices during the two eras; and evaluate the effect of the two marketing board eras on cocoa production. Time series data for the period 1966 to 2009, were sourced from Cocoa Research Institute, Ibadan, FAOSTAT and Annual Bulletin of Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics. Descriptive statistics, Trend analysis and Co-integration Analysis were used to analyse the data. The result revealed that that there is trend in the cocoa production during the marketing board era as compared to the post-marketing board era. This is attributed to the increase in the prices experienced in post marketing board era. The study also established that during the marketing board era, prices and marketing margins affected the production of cocoa. The marketing board era had positive impact on the cocoa production although the trend analysis revealed the post marketing era has higher production. Thus the study recommends that Government and cocoa farmers should learn from the price stabilization mechanism of marketing board era. The government should move away from direct involvement in running the economy such as the marketing of cocoa.