(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon's cocoa and its derivatives have brought substantial earnings to the sector, with exports generating a total of CFA463.6 billion in 2022, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS). This represents a significant increase of CFA72 billion compared to 2021 when exports of the same products yielded CFA391.7 billion. This strong performance highlights the growing profitability of Cameroon's cocoa industry on the international market.

The bulk of 2022's revenue, amounting to more than CFA318 billion, came from the export of raw cocoa beans, with international shipments totaling 235,451 tons. This marked an 18% increase from the previous year, accounting for 9% of Cameroon's total export revenue in 2022. Meanwhile, cocoa processors exported 80,313 tons of cocoa derivatives, including 50,813 tons of cocoa paste and 29,500 tons of cocoa butter, bringing in a combined revenue of CFA139.2 billion. Cocoa paste exports alone secured CFA82 billion, up 11% year-on-year, while cocoa butter exports rose by 34.2% to CFA57.2 billion.

However, the producers of finished products like chocolate and other cocoa-based goods saw relatively modest earnings, with 2022 exports netting about CFA6.4 billion, a slight increase of 1.6% from the previous year.

Compared with the CFA250 billion that officially represents the average income earned by cocoa farmers in Cameroon (about half the income earned by industrialists and bean exporters, ed), when bean purchase prices in the production basins reached CFA1,500 per kilogram a few years ago, farmers remain the underprivileged party in the cocoa sector. Indeed, despite the global cocoa industry's annual turnover reaching $100 billion, as frequently mentioned by Cameroon's Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, citing International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) data, farmers receive only about 2% of this amount, or $2 billion. The lion's share of the revenue goes to chocolate manufacturers (35%), with the rest distributed among grinding industries and transporters.

Amidst this disparity, the future looks brighter for Cameroonian cocoa producers in the 2023-2024 campaign thanks to favorable international market conditions, including a predicted decrease in production from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the world's leading producers. A recent collective sale in Eastern Cameroon in March 2024 saw cocoa beans fetching a record price of CFA4,225 per kilogram, over four times the price paid to Ivorian producers, indicating a potential uplift in producer incomes in the current cocoa season.