(Business in Cameroon) - In an official communiqué, published on the eve of the start of the 2017-2018 cocoa season, which will be officially launched this 25 August 2017 in the area of Ntui, in the Centre region, the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, announced that the new campaign will be marked by additional government support for operators in the cocoa sector.

"The government has taken a set of measures aimed at attenuating the impact of the decrease in prices (world cocoa) on the purchasing power of producers, notably in reducing by half the amount of the export charge (it goes from FCfa 150 to FCfa 75 per kilogram), and in providing the national office of cocoa and coffee (ONCC - Office National du Cacao et du Café) and the cocoa and coffee board (CICC - Conseil Interprofessionnel du Cacao et du Café) with additional means to stimulate the market entry of quality cocoa, synonymous with a better payment for producers", revealed this member of the Cameroonian government.

To these two bodies in charge of organising the cocoa and coffee sectors in Cameroon, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana recommended, during the new season, the generalisation of the "system of group sales" and to refer systematically "during the negotiations of prices, to the reference price published by the sector information system (Système d’Information des Filières - SIF)", a facility used to inform players in the sector, on a daily basis, of average market prices, through various communications channels.

The Minister of Commerce announced, furthermore, a strengthening of border controls with certain cocoa producing countries, in order to combat fraudulent exports of Cameroonian cocoa notably to neighbouring Nigeria.

BRM