(Business in Cameroon) - The Interprofessional Council for Cocoa and Coffee (CICC) has announced its intent to increase the volume of locally processed cocoa beans in Cameroon to more than 100,000 tons in the short term. This amount is three times greater than the actual amount - about 33,000 tons - officially processed during the 2014-2015 season.

As a basis for this optimistic projection by the CICC, there are various investments already injected and there are other upcoming ones. Amongst these are the recent investments by Sis Cacaos; the market leader in the local processing of cocoa beans this year. Indeed, the Barry Callebault’s subsidiary has acquired new machinery to boost its processing capacity from 35,000 to 50,000 during the present season.

Moreover, the CICC highlighted that there is an actual increase in Fapam Industry’s processing capacity, since the unit was recently granted governmental funding in relation to the Agropoles project. The unit plans on increasing its processing capacities to 25,000 tons per year.

Finally, the ‘’Program supporting local initiatives for cocoa processing’’ initiated by the government, projects on building 10 cocoa processing units throughout the country. Besides this initiative, Dutch organization SNV which offered Konyé’s producers a processing unit, will do the same this year for producers in Ayos, Central region.

In order to reach the 300,000 tons of cocoa beans, Cameroon has planned to be locally processed by 2020, more of these initiatives and investments should be implemented.

Brice R. Mbodiam