(Business in Cameroon) - Over the period from 2011 to 2016, poultry accounted for 34.38% of Cameroon’s overall meat production. This was revealed by Dr Taïga, the minister of husbandry, fisheries and animal industries (Minepia) in an interview with Defis Actuels.

On a more general level, meat production in Cameroon increased by 9.78%, from 313,000 tons in 2011 to 344,000 tons in 2016, Dr Taiga pointed out. The upturn is subsequent to a set of projects and programs initiated by the government to promote and stimulate livestock activities in the country, despite Boko Haram exactions that began in the Far North in 2013 leading to a decline in the sector.

These initiatives, we learnt, have resulted in an 8% average annual increase in cattle herds during the period under review; a 14% increase in sheep numbers; an average growth of 1.1% per year in goat herds as well as an average annual increase of 4.6% and 4.7% respectively in pig and poultry populations.

However, in the absence of more recent statistics, it may be assumed that this good trend probably reversed in 2017, as the country witnessed two successive avian influenza outbreaks that seriously affected the sector between 2016 and 2017. Indeed, in addition to the CFA16 billion lost by the sector according to the scores of the Cameroonian Poultry Association (Ipavic), the circulation and trade of poultry had been banned for about 10 months in the Western region, a major poultry production area (80%), as to control these outbreaks.

Brice R. Mbodiam