(Business in Cameroon) - The arrival of companies such as Dolait and Royal Crown on Cameroon’s yoghurt market has made it quite competitive for the Cameroonian dairy company, Camlait, which in response decided to diversify its line of products, thus introducing soya-based products. To this end, the firm invested 3 billion FCFA to set up a dedicated production line.

“Demand growth for yoghourt is so significant (25% per year) that rivals end up installing themselves in the long term. Therefore, to survive this fierce battleground, we are forced to turn to other growth drivers”, says Camlait’s CEO, Paulin Toukam Zuko, who also revealed that production costs for soya-based yoghourt were 50% less than the one made using milk.

Using soya in producing its yoghourt is, truly, a strategic choice the Cameroonian agro-food made, as the company now intends on deriving 65% of its revenues from the soya-based products. A great choice indeed as soya is produced locally unlike milk which is imported at high costs.