(Business in Cameroon) - Next November 5, in Mbankom, some twenty kilometers from Yaoundé, Prime Minister Joseph Joseph Dion Nguté will inaugurate the new corn processing plant of Compagnie fermière du Cameroun (CFC), subsidiary of brewing group SABC. Through this XAF18 billion investment, SABC plans to produce 30,000 tons of corn grits yearly by transforming 60,000 tons of corn purchased from local farmers.
Apart from contributing to the development of the corn value chain in Cameroon, through support and purchases, CFC’s corn processing unit will help SABC meet its corn grits needs without resorting to imports to complement the 10,000 tons it buys from local producer Maïscam yearly. “Before my arrival, the percentage of local products in SABC's production was 35%. Nowadays, it is close to 60% but my ambition is to increase it to 75% in the long run,” explains Emmanuel de Tailly, Managing Director of SABC, to justify the investment.
According to SABC’s projections, for the production of 30,000 tons of grits yearly, 30,000 to 40,000 farmers will need to develop 12,000 hectares of corn farms. These farmers will be grouped into cooperatives to facilitate support from the CFC, through the Agriculture Investment and Market Development project PIDMA, Emmanuel de Tailly stresses.
Next stop: Poultry farming
CFC plans to enter the poultry farming sector after developing the corn value chain. “Compagnie fermière du Cameroun intends to contribute its expertise for the improvement of animal nutrition offer with the construction of a laying-hen farm able to produce 112.500 hatching eggs weekly and a hatchery able to produce 90,000 chicks weekly. Both the eggs and chicks will be supplied to Cameroonian poultry farmers for broiler production,” the company’s presentation reads.
This production will help Cameroon reduce its day-old chicks imports from countries like Brazil, Morocco, and Turkey, therefore, ending the dependence of its poultry sector on development in those countries. Indeed, a minor problem in its current chicks supply countries usually hampers Cameroon’s poultry sector sending prices flying in local markets.
Brice R. Mbodiam