(Business in Cameroon) - In the coming months, Cameroonian firm Sotreas -Société de transformation des produits d’élevage et d’agriculture du Sahel- could launch the construction of a tomato processing factory at Djagalaï, Maroua. 

Indeed, in a release published on February 7, 2022, Nana Aboubakar Djalloh, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Environment, announced that the public audiences in the framework of the detailed environmental and social impact study of this project would be held from February 7 to 12. 

The primary objective of those audiences is to collect residents’ views on the environmental and social impact of the project. If the project meets social and environmental standards, the initiator can start building its factory.  

According to the ACDIC  (the Citizen Association for the Defense of Collective Interests), contrary to popular belief, the project area is suitable for tomato farming. For the association, the factory can easily get its tomato supplies given that Maroua is just some thirty kilometers from Meskine, Mogom, Yambarang, and Katoual, the most suitable regions for tomato farming. 

The construction timeframe and the volume of investment required have not been disclosed yet, but the factory is expected to add value to the local production of tomatoes, which is a perishable good. Indeed, there is almost no means of conservation when farmers do not sell their tomatoes so they are sometimes obliged to throw away rotten ones. 

S.A.