(Business in Cameroon) - In Cameroon’s coffee sector, the volume of marketed production fell drastically season-to-season to 12,157 tons during the 2020-2021 season. This was revealed by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) during the ceremony organized to launch the 2021-2022 season in Melong, Littoral, on February 16, 2022.  

This volume is the lowest level ever reached in the last five seasons. It is also the first time the volume of coffee commercialized in the country is falling under the 20,000 tons mark since the 2015-2016 season. Compared to the volume sold during the 2019-2020 season, the 2020-2021 volume is down by 12,534 tons or about 50.7%. 

During that season, the volume of commercialized robusta dropped by half going from 23,239 tons in 2019-2020 to only 11,745 tons in 2020-2021. At the same time, the volume of arabica sold that season was only one-third of the commercialized volume during the previous seasons (412 tons in 2020-2021 against 1,452 tons in 2019-2020). 

According to the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Council (CICC), this drastic fall in the volume of commercialized coffee has been lingering for over a decade now. It is caused by a combination of factors including the age and low productivity of coffee plantations, the youth’s disinterest in coffee farming (because notably of its low profitability), the exhausting work required, and more lucrative offers in other sectors.

Brice R. Mbodiam