(Business in Cameroon) - For five years, starting in 2014, the Inter-professional Cocoa and Coffee Council (CICC) will encourage coffee production by supporting producers in a variety of ways. This will cost a total of 150 million FCfa per annum or 750 million FCfa by the project’s completion. The announcement was made at the launch of the new coffee season.

The operation aims to get the sector out of its misery after its production plummeted by more than 56% in one year. In fact, between the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons, national coffee production fell from 38,000 to 16,000, reaching a third of what it was in 1986 (140,000 tonnes). Cameroon is now the world’s 30^th producer, affirms the CICC.

Behind this sudden avalanche in the coffee sector, experts suspect not only climate change, but also less interest among farmers. Coffee sector sources also blame the marginalisation of coffee in terms of support and grants as well as aging plantations and farmers.

The large coffee producer cooperatives spread out in the main farming areas (coastal, western, southern and eastern regions) are also blamed by some experts for taking most of the financing contributions that are not reinvested in production, but spent on the daily operational costs of these structures that are described as budget biters.