(Business in Cameroon) - SNV, the Dutch development organisation, is currently completing the construction of a building that will house a cocoa processing plant in Ayos, located in the Centre region of Cameroon. The plant will be completed “in two to three months”, revealed Maguy Belobo Belibi, Project Manager of Cameroon Cocoa Eco Project at SNV.

Thanks to this project launched in January 2014, Ayos cocoa farmers, who have an association called Cacao+, have been receiving, since last year, support from the SNV with the structuring of their organisation, market access and more.

“We encourage farmers to engage in processing, not only to access more revenue, but also to consume more cocoa bi-products,” explains Maguy Belobo Belibi. She explains that the processing plant will only be a part of the Cocoa Business Services Center, that the SNV is currently building in Ayos, which will also have a warehouse and a sola-based drying shed.

A similar structure is currently being completed in Konyé, in the South-East region of Cameroon where a cocoa processing plant was handed to farmers in April 2015 for the SNV’s Cameroon Cocoa Eco Project.