(Business in Cameroon) - At October 31, 2017, Cameroon’s banana producers exported 223,012 tons of banana, against 243,681 tons exported by the same date last year, official sources revealed.

This represents a decrease of more than 20,600 tons which producers attributed to the drop in national production also resulting from bad weather conditions.

Société des plantations du Haut Penja (Php) remains the leading banana exporter with 131,850 tons exported at the end of last October, down more than 9,000 tons compared to 2016.  

Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the public agri-business, with 81,636 tons exported, experienced a 12,000 tons decrease.

However, the market’s Tom Thumb, Boh Plantations’s exports have increased over the reference period. Indeed, from 9,078 tons of banana exported on October 31, 2016, its exports have increased to 9,526 tons in 2017.   

In view of the current exported volumes, producers will not be able to meet the 300,000 tons projected for this year, according to Cameroon’s banana producers’ association (Association bananière du Cameroun-Assobacam) said.

It should be reminded that Cameroon’s third most exported product is banana. It comes after oil which represents 40% of the exports and raw log and sawn timber (15%).  

Brice R. Mbodiam