Sao Tome and Principe raised 172,000 million dobras (US$9 million) in 2014 from cocoa sales, which accounted for 93.9 percent of exports of agricultural products, the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE) said Monday.

INE said that in terms of nominal values ​​in dobras (the Sao Tome currency) there was a positive year-on-year growth of 58.9 percent due to the “improved price of cocoa” on the international market.

In terms of quantity there was an increase of 22 percent with cocoa exports rising from 2,617 tons in 2013 to 3,193 tons in 2014.

The remaining 6.1 percent of the list of exported agricultural products was made up of coconut, coffee, flowers and pepper.

The list of exporting companies is headed by organic cocoa cooperative CECAB, the Sociedade Agro-Comercial (Agricon) and Comércio, Gestão e Investimento (CGI).

The main importers of agricultural products from Sao Tome and Principe in 2014 were Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium. (macauhub/ST)