(Business in Cameroon) - Due to the obsolescence of its equipment, the Société de Développement du Coton (Sodecoton – Cotton Development Company), agroindustry giant in Northern Cameroon, had to lower the production capacity of its nine cotton ginning units to 200,000 tons, against an installed capacity of 350,000 tons, Mohamadou Bayero, MD of Sodecoton, revealed recently. This was during a Forum on the cotton sector organised on 10 May 2017 in Yaoundé, as part of the activities celebrating the 60 years of the European Union in Cameroon.
To revert this downward trend in its activities, Mohamadou Bayero revealed, Sodecoton needs investments estimated at FCfa 40 billion, including FCfa 11 billion to be released in emergency by the shareholders of this company, with the most important being the State of Cameroon.
The funding, we learned, will not only mainly help with the upgrade of Sodecoton’s industrial equipment, but also its mobile equipment which has become old and insufficient.
Despite these difficulties, the Northern Cameroon agroindustry giant is planning for a cotton production of 248,150 tons of cotton grains during the current 2016-2017 season, against 258,000 tons produced during the previous season.
BRM