(Business in Cameroon) - On January 3, 2018, PRODUCAM, Cameroon’s third largest cocoa exporter, announced that it had been granted a funding facility by Milost Global Inc, an American private equity firm. This facility of up to $500 million (about CFA274 billion) falls in the framework of Mesa Fund 1, a global opportunity fund that is managed by Milost Global Inc.

The funds mobilized thanks to this partnership will help develop PRODUCAM’s projects such as the construction of a cocoa beans’ processing unit with a capacity of 32,000 tons expandable to 64,000 tons.

According to PRODUCAM, this processing unit will produce cocoa butter, cocoa paste and cocoa powder and, the promoters think that it will be commissioned in Q4 2018.

“We are pleased to welcome Milost Global, an investor active in our core business, as the partner of one of our most important assets. The mix of Milost Global’s expertise and the experience of PRODUCAM as well as our position in the cocoa industry in Cameroon will create a synergistic value for our company”, Emmanuel Néossi, PRODUCAM’s founder, and CEO has commented.

Let’s note that with a national production which averages 230,000 tons, for five cocoa campaigns now, Cameroon processes only 25% of the beans, exposing the sector to fluctuations on the international market. Cameroon’s government and the market players aim at doubling this processing capacity by 2020.  

Brice R. Mbodiam