Cameroon cocoa production witnesses a 12% rise

Over the 2020-2021 cocoa season (1 August 2020- 15 July 2021), Cameroon produced 292,471 tonnes of cocoa. This volume revealed on August 10, 2021, at the launch of the 2021-2022 season in Kekem, increased by 35,319 tonnes or 12% compared with the 2019-2020 production. It is also Cameroon’s best performance over the past six production seasons, bringing the country closer to the 300,000-tonne mark.

During the season under review, local grinders processed 62,341 tonnes of cocoa, showing a slight increase of 3.3% compared with the volume of cocoa processed during the 2019-2020 season. For the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, this increase was facilitated by the commissioning of a fifth processing plant (Atlantic Cocoa), which launched operations alongside traditional processing companies like Sic Cacao, Neo Industry, Chococam, and Ferrero.  

The highest farm gate prices recorded went from XAF1, 300 the previous season to XAF1, 210 per kilogramme over the season just ended. Those prices even reach a low of XAF700.

"Thanks to a perfectible but effective internal organisation and a preventive export levy policy, the farm gate prices paid to Cameroonians has remained much higher than the prices applicable in other producing countries," Minister of Commerce Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana comments.

The region that benefited the most from those fair prices lauded by Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana is the Centre that accounted for 43.6% of the cocoa beans produced during the season under review. By accounting for close to half of the national production, the region confirmed its status of leader in cocoa production, ahead of the South West that it outranked some years ago. The latter accounted for 31.6% of the cocoa produced during the 2020-2021 season despite the socio-political crisis affecting its economy since late 2016.  The Littoral followed with 13.5% of the national production, the South (5.2%), the East (3.1%), the West (2.9%), the North-West (0.1%) and Adamaoua (0.1%).

Source: Business in Cameroon of Wednesday, 11 August 2021