(Business in Cameroon) - Between April 1 and June 30, 2021, natural rubber production in Cameroon will increase again, according to the business cycle forecast recently published by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). The central bank explains that this rise in production will be boosted by international demand and the renovation of rubber production fields in the Southwest.  

This is good news for main local rubber producers such as Safacam, Hévécam, and Sud Cameroun Hévéa, whose activities were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Also, this will particularly help the operations of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the state-owned company that paid the heaviest price to the so-called Anglophone crisis raging in the North-West and South-West regions since late 2016.

With the rising international demand, the company will improve its revenues on the rubber segment by renovating its plantations (as indicated by the BEAC).

Let’s note that like the banana and oil palm segments, CDC’s rubber production segment was also affected by the Anglophone crisis. For instance,  according to Franklin Ngoni Njie (director-general of CDC), in H1-2019, CDC produced only 878 tons of rubber while its initial forecast was 4,000 tons for the said period. This was due to the closure of seven out of CDC’s eleven rubber plantations because of separatist militants’ assaults on employees.

BRM