(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s cotton development corporation (Sodecoton) posted a net benefit of CFA8.47 billion during the 2021-22 campaign, after a negative result of CFA4.7 billion the previous year.

The 2021-22 result is presented as the company's biggest performance over at least the past six seasons. The cotton industry in Cameroon seems to be reviving gradually after a sluggish period marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the loss in 2020-21, the performance has been on an upward trend for three successive campaigns (2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020) following a cumulative loss of CFA36.5 billion during the 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 seasons.

Sodecoton attributes the solid performance in 2021-22 to the favorable international situation around cotton prices, but above all to the recovery measures implemented in late 2016. "This recovery was achieved through the restoration of the company's industrial capacity, the improvement of the ginning capacity from 50% to 90%, and the capacity of the oil mills from 62% to 95%, between 2018 and 2021," said an official of the company.

“Also, to overcome the lack of electricity supply by Eneo, about fifteen generators were acquired, as well as 90 trucks for transporting seed cotton, 80 of which were purchased by the company and 10 donated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Minader), under the 3-year-year Emergency Plan (Planut). The rolling stock was strengthened between 2016 and 2021 through the acquisition of about twenty large trucks, civil engineering equipment (bulldozers, graders, tankers, dump trucks, loaders, and handling equipment),” another official said.

As a reminder, Sodecoton produced 329,021 tons of cotton during the 2021-2022 season, down 8.8% from the previous season.  

Written by: Brice R. Mbodiam

Translated from French by Firmine AIZAN