(Business in Cameroon) - Association bananière du Cameroun (Assobacam) reveals that during Q1, 2018, Cameroonian producers of dessert banana exported 59, 149 tons of the product. On a year-on-year basis, this represents a decrease by 19,461 tons since by Q1, 2017, the producers had exported  78, 610 tons.  

This result should be due to the counter performance of Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the second major public agro-industry company in the local fruit sector.

Assobacam reveals that by the end of March 2018, CDC exported 11,631 tons while in 2017, it exported 26,840 tons (a 15,209 tons drop).  

Let’s remind that in December 2017, Franklin Ngoni Njie, the managing director of that company announced that the production decreased in the Southwest because of the climate. At the time, he expected that the production would increase thanks to new modern production technics it elaborated with the help of PHP, the local subsidiary of Compagnie fruitière de Marseille.

As far as PHP is concerned, it exported 45,064 tons (about four times the volume exported by CDC) during the period under review. However, its performance was below the level during Q1, 2017. Indeed, during that period, PHP exported 48,755 tons which represents a drop of 3,700 tons.

As for Boh Plantations, the minnows of that market, its exports stood at 2, 449 tons (against 3,015 tons in 2017).

For the record, according to Assobacam, banana is the third most exported product in Cameroon apart from oil which represents 40% of the total exports and wood (both sawn and raw) which represents 15% of the total exports.  

Brice R. Mbodiam