(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon, the National Cereals Board will soon sell 10,000 bags of cereals to mitigate the rise in the prices of those products in the Northern region. The announcement was made on July 9, 2021, by Mohamadou Gassimou, director-general of that state institution, during a visit to Maroua, the regional capital of the Far North.

The announcement comes in a particularly tough hunger season marked by unabatedly rising cereal prices. In the northern regions, for instance, corn prices have risen from XAF16,500 to a XAF20,000-23,000 range per 100kg sack.

The pressure on cereal prices is particularly heightened by massive exports. As Abdoulaye Ahmadou, a trader at Garoua Central market explains, “the buyers are mainly Nigerians who come for large quantities of” cereals. “But for them, the price of corn would not have exceeded XAF18,000 or 19,000 per sack,” he adds.

The cereals board is the government’s main institution that fights hunger in the three northern regions where the climate is harsh and cereals are staples. During harvesting seasons, it makes large cereal purchases to store them, and when shortages occur or during hunger seasons, it sells those products at affordable prices.

BRM