(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s rubber production is expected to drop in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the volume produced in the same quarter a year earlier. According to the quarterly business survey recently published by the BEAC - Central Bank of CEMAC countries, this pessimistic outlook is issued because of the aging production equipment, the arrival of the  “winter period” (dry season), and the poor state of roads. 

The drop in production will be mitigated by the investments made by Hévécam –leader of the local rubber market – to rehabilitate its production equipment and some old plantations, we learn. 

The forecast comes after the dynamism observed in the sector throughout 2020 and 2021. Indeed, despite the disruptive impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Cameroon’s rubber production rose by 15,000 tons year on year. According to figures revealed by the Technical Commission for the Rehabilitation of Public and Para-public Enterprises (CTR), this production stood at 60,000 tons in 2020, up from 45,000 tons in 2019. 

This upturn continued throughout the year 2021 despite the persistence of the pandemic, due to the resumption of international demand and the rehabilitation of some producers’ plantations in the South West. The producers that rehabilitated their plantations include Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the state-owned agro-industrial group that exploits bananas, oil palm, and rubber trees in this English-speaking region.

Brice R. Mbodiam