(Business in Cameroon) - Climate change which has been affecting coffee production in Cameroon is the real threat to the development of that sector. This was revealed by François Mefinja Foka, director of Union centrale des coopératives agricoles de l’Ouest (Uccao), the largest coffee producers’ organization in Cameroon.
“This situation coupled with the preexisting economic situation increasingly affect the coffee producers nowadays”, he declared. He then concluded that climate uncertainty has more impacts on coffee producers than economic uncertainties “Arabica could disappear even though it is the popular variety”, he added.
As for the goals set by Cameroon in the Cocoa-coffee recovery plan being implemented by Cameroon, François Mefinja Foka is pessimistic.
“According to the cocoa-coffee recovery plan adopted in 2014, the government targets 600,000 tons of cocoa and 160,000 tons of coffee. To date, the figures are not that convincing in the coffee sector as well as the cocoa sector. We are just at 300,000 tons of cocoa and barely 30,000 tons for coffee. Those figures show clearly that the coffee sector is not performing well and, if nothing is done, coffee will disappear to be replaced by other crops”, he warned.
BRM