(Business in Cameroon) - The first quarter of 2016 for the la Société anonyme agricole et forestière du Cameroun (Safacam), a company listed on the Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), was marked by “a rubber and palm oil production in slight increase over a year”, as can be read in the report of Socfinaf SA, parent company of Safa France, which is itself the company through which the French industrialist Vincent Bolloré owns 69% of shares in Safacam.

This production increase on the rubber tree and palm oil segments, we learn, positively influenced the turnover and the net result of this agro-industrial unit over the period under consideration; whose indicators respectively registered an increase of 27 and 3%, the report highlights.

At Société camerounaise des palmeraies (Socapalm), a company owned by the Luxembourger group Socfin and listed on the Douala stock market, the rigidity of “the tax system” which, we learn, “continue to weigh on the net result” of the company is lamented. This, the above-mentioned report specifies, despite “a slight increase in the palm oil production” registered during the first quarter 2016.

We can also note that the production increase in the two main industrial oil factories in Cameroon was not sufficient to meet the deficit in the country in terms of production of palm oil. Proof of this, refiners had to launch imports with a total volume of 16,000 tons since the beginning of the year, with the approval of the government.

Brice R. Mbodiam