businessincameroon.com

Coffee: "Cameroon plans to triple production"

The country wants to increase its coffee production from 43 000 to 125 000 tons in five years to regain its place among the top twelve largest producers worldwide.

An association of coffee producers in Ethiopia.

The second largest exporter of coffee in 1990, with a production of 132 000 tons, Cameroon produced only 24 360 tons in 1994. The coffee production was suffering the consequences of structural adjustment imposed with the liberalization of crops in most African countries, which have appealed to the World Bank to halt the deterioration of their economic situation.

The regeneration of old plantations has been stopped, the extension of better farming practices has been forgotten, liberalized trade turns to anarchy with the influx of many adventurers determined to make money at any price.

The draft applies equally to all countries, in all fields; from the Senegalese peanut to the Ghanaian cocoa, from the cotton of Mali to the Ivorian pineapple. To restore the fiscal deficit, we must relieve the state investment in these sectors. Abandonment of research, provision of seeds, fertilizers and agricultural equipment, removal of the subsidy of the purchase price to producers who are falling drastically due to the arrival of Viet Nam on the coffee market (according to the advices of World Bank) and the expansion of cultivation in Brazil. This policy has destroyed nearly 25 million small producers around the world, due to the price lowering at half from the current level, which fall in the prices of thirty years ago.

Disengagement

In Cameroon, the government has disengaged from the entire coffee production. Stopping research has decimated coffee varieties grown locally, particularly vulnerable to anthracnose. The regeneration of old plantations has stopped, the extension of better farming practices are forgotten, liberalized trade turns to anarchy with the influx of many adventurers, bent on making money at any price. The abolition of the guidelines for producers, subsidies which made pesticides and fertilizers available and accessible, abandoned plantations, the poor organization of producers, in addition to the small size of plots of production, depletion of soil, use of plant material of poor quality and aging producers, eventually ruin the industry.
Productivity is like the production, much affected. It falls to 300 kg per hectare, against, for example, from 816 to 1032 kg per hectare in Brazil, in 2002.

Other resources

For many years, despite the loss of producers, the government was not at all concerned about it. It can count on other resources, oil, timber, to maintain, from 1965 to 1985, a sustained growth. The deteriorating economic situation, culminating with the devaluation of the currency, the FCFA from the franc zone in 1994, has forced the country to comply with conditions of World Bank and IMF for deletion of 3.475 trillion dollars in debt and reaching in June 2006, the point of HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries).

Provisions

Since that time, the country is obliged to consider the injunctions of the Bretton Woods institutions. In June 2008, giving it a 4.29 million dollars under the FPRG (Facility for Poverty Reduction and Growth), the IMF noted that "the acceleration of growth would require more intense reform efforts. It would be essential to mobilize additional non-oil revenue and reduce subsidies to public enterprises to generate the fiscal space required to increase priority spending, particularly in agriculture and infrastructure."
The recent decision to revive coffee production is one of the responses to "the advices" of Bretton Woods. It will help reduce dependence on oil and invest in agriculture.

New plantations

The Recovery Plan for 2010-2015, released last October on 7th, should help increase the production of coffee, from 43 000 tons this year to 125 000 tons. 26 billion FCFA (38 million euros) will be invested. To define the strategy and means to revive coffee production, the plan has been developed with the participation of all stakeholders in the sector in Cameroon and assistance from the World Bank, UNCTAD and FAO. The study was funded by the International Trade Center and the European Union. This is to establish new plantations, improved planting materials to regenerate the existing orchard, increased use of fertilizer due to their low costs, upgrade technical equipment and to subsidize farmers. The Cameroon hopes to find its place among the top twelve major producers of coffee worldwide.
Of the 38 million needed to finance the plan, the state has already mobilized 12 millions. The cocoa-coffee Development Fund must provide an extra 15 millions. The remaining 9 millions are expected from cooperation partners, the World Bank, the International Trade Center, FAO and the Common Fund for Commodities.

CES