(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian delegation in the World Cocoa conference 2018 held from April 22-25, 2018, reveals that during his speech, the Cameroonian trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana denounced the current cocoa prices which are very low.

“The producer countries can no more agree with the actual cocoa prices which sounds like slavery”, he said.

He was then echoing the German minister of Agriculture who, at the opening ceremony, called for transparency in the international cocoa market. According to her, this market is one of the world’s shadiest which reserves only a meager part to the producers.

Also, during the meetings, three young Germans took to the stage and threatened not to eat chocolate again because of the unfair treatment of the bean producers. Indeed, Jean-Marc Anga, director of the International Cocoa Organization revealed that while the price per kilogram of chocolate has increased to CFA7,500 during the last cocoa campaign, the price per kilogram of cocoa beans was CFA1,200. He also explained that during the 2016-2017 campaign, the producer countries received only 6% of the revenues generated by the chocolate industry.

During the said cocoa campaign, the chocolate producers made $3.5 billion profit (CFA1,815 billion) and their governments received $15 billion (CFA8,075 billion) as VAT taxes. However, none of them deemed it necessary to provide support to the beans’ producers, the cocoa organization commented.

Let’s note that more than 1,000 participants, from 68 countries, took part in the World Cocoa Conference 2018. They were representatives of government institutions, chocolate makers, brokers, cocoa processors, trade companies. There were also companies operating in the logistics, finance and insurance sector as well as farm inputs and processing units’ suppliers.

Brice R. Mbodiam