(Business in Cameroon) - In addition to the over 7,413 acres that it already operates in the Moungo department in the Coastal region, Société des plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), an agro-foods company run by Compagnie fruitière de Marseille, is planning to create a new banana plantation on over 1,976 acres in Dehane, a district located in the Ocean department in the southern region of Cameroon. This information was revealed in a call for tenders published on July 7, 2014 by the agro-industrial company regarding “the acquisition of complete under-tree irrigation equipment”.

“PHP is currently in the process of expanding its banana plantations in Dehane. This expansion will be done in several phases covering an area of over 1,976 acres. In the first phase, we will be irrigating a little over 128 acres. To do this, we need under-tree equipment to prepare the surfaces to be used,” states the call for tenders in two parts, one concerning the modernisation of the irrigation systems used by the company’s plantations in the Moungo department.

The banana industry leader in Cameroon, accounting for 45% of national production, and the fruit of the merger-acquisition of Société des bananeraies de la Mbome (SBM), de la Société des plantations nouvelles de Penja (SPNP) and Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), this company has exported 55,518 tonnes of banana out of the 133,000 tonnes exported by Cameroon for the first half of 2014. Its annual production is estimated to be 120,000 tonnes, according to the Cameroon Banana Association (Assobacam).