(Business in Cameroon) - Banana producers in Cameroon sold a total of 22,604 tons on the international market in March 2022. According to the Cameroon Banana Association (Assobacam), this volume is up by 2,420 tons (or nearly 12% YoY), compared to the 20,184 tons exported in March 2021. It is also the best performance since the beginning of the year, after 18,394 tons in January 2022 and 16,525 tons in February.

This improvement in exports, Assobacam said, is driven by the good performance of Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), the local subsidiary of Compagnie fruitière de Marseille and the leader of the banana market in Cameroon. According to Assobacam data, in March 2022 PHP exported 19,240 tons of bananas, up 2,372 tons from the 16,868 tons in March 2021.

Price increases

Exports by the state-owned agro-industry CDC peaked at 1,982 tons in March 2022, a slight increase of 18 tons compared to the same period in 2021. Boh Plantations, the number 3 on the market, saw its exports increase by 30 tons from 1,352 tons in March 2021 to 1,382 tons in March 2022.

This increase in Cameroonian banana exports comes against a backdrop of rising prices for Fairtrade certified Cameroonian bananas. However, only PHP currently enjoys this benefit as the company is the only producer of Fairtrade-certified bananas in Cameroon. In October 2021, Fairtrade International decided to revise upwards the minimum prices charged in banana exporting countries committed to its fair trade system.

With this new measure, exports of bananas produced by the local subsidiary of the Compagnie fruitière de Marseille have risen from €8.75 to €9.3 per standard box (18.14 kg), if the producer is himself an exporter of his merchandise (FOB price); and from €6.45 to €6.8 (ex-factory price or EXW), if the producer goes through intermediaries to export.

Brice R. Mbodiam