(Business in Cameroon) - On 28 December 2015, the Cameroonian minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, gave a positive feedback to a request from the minister of Trade initiated and motivated by the Regulatory Committee of the Oleaginous sector, in order to authorise the import, under preferential conditions, of palm oil and its derivatives in Cameroon in 2016.

In all, the document reveals, 47,000 tons of palm oil will be imported (in addition to the local production) this year in order to meet the demand from oil processors, against 8,000 tons of stearin and 5,000 tons of kernel oil. These raw materials will be imported exempt from VAT and with a preferential customs rate of 5%, different from the applicable statutory price of reference of FCfa 1,500 per litre.

The biggest cargo will be imported by Société Camerounaise de Raffinerie Maya (SCR Maya), to whom the government has granted an import quota of 25,000 tons of palm oil. Azur, who will import 10,000 tons of palm oil, is the only company authorised to import palm oil derivatives. These are 8,000 tons of stearin and 5,000 tons of kernel oil.

Let us recall that despite the presence of food industries who supply 60% of the national production against 40% for traditional farms who have been steadily rising throughout the years, Cameroon has a yearly production deficit of 130,000 tons of palm oil, according to official figures.

BRM