(Business in Cameroon) - On September 10, 2014, following a meeting with the Cameroonian Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, the Deputy Minister of State Administration, Industry and Trade for the People’s Republic of China, Liu Yuting, indicated that 18 Cameroonian companies are already in China. This was reported by the Cameroonian daily paper.

The Chinese member of government reassured the Minister of Trade who expressed his desire to see more “Cameroonian products on the Chinese market” when noting China’s return to Cameroon where the market has been literally flooded with products from China.

On September 10, before his host, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who specified that Cameroon exports mainly cotton, wood and sawn timber to China, the Chinese official encouraged greater awareness among Chinese businessmen for them to process Cameroon products locally and export them to China and the Central African sub-region in order to help “promote brand Cameroon.”

According to the Economic Affaires Directorate (DAE) of the Ministry of Finance (2013 report on Cameroon’s economic, social and financial outlook) in 2012, China became Cameroon’s first bilateral customer, being the destination for 15% of the country’s exports, outdoing Spain and the Netherlands (consumer of close to 70% of Cameroonian cocoa), which were the country’s top two customers in 2011.