(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon has suffered a 12.2% decline in the volume of bananas exported in August 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, the National Sector Association (Assobacam) recently revealed.

According to a document issued by this entity, this poor performance occurred despite a record volume shipped by the state-owned CDC. Official data showed that the public company exported 2,795 tons of bananas over the period under review, 74% higher than the 1,605 tons exported in August 2022. Assobacam says this is the highest export volume achieved by CDC since the beginning of the year. Until now, the company’s biggest year performance was in June 2023 when it shipped 2,617 tons of bananas, following 2,592 tons in January. Commenting on this upswing, the Technical Committee for the Rehabilitation of Public and Parastatal Sector Enterprises (CTR) said it was made possible “thanks to the efforts made by the government to ensure the security of the company’s equipment after the troubling episode that came with the Anglophone crisis."

However, while the CDC is enjoying a positive result, the two other sector players have all experienced a decline over the period. Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), the market leader, posted a 22.5% decline with only 9,996 tons of bananas shipped in August 2023, compared to 12,899 tons in August 2022. This marks the third-worst performance by this company since the beginning of 2023, following 9,761 tons in May and 8,714 tons in July 2023. As for Boh Plantations, it has only exported 1,024 tons over the period under review, compared to 1,229 tons in August 2022, down 16.7%.