(Business in Cameroon) - In Q1- 2021, Cameroon exported 54,900 tons of banana, according to the Banana Association ASSOBACAM. Compared with the 49,818 tons the country exported over the same period in 2020, this represents an increase of 5,082 tons.
This performance was mainly due to the exports of state-owned agribusiness Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC). Indeed, in Q1-2020, the company did not export bananas because it stopped operations in September 2018 due to the sociopolitical crisis shaking the two anglophone regions since 2016. It only resumed operations in May 2020 and between January and March 2021, it exported 5,317 tons of banana.
CDC’s performance mitigated the decline in the production market of the leader PHP during the period under review. Indeed, the local subsidiary of the French group exported only 45,522 tons of banana between January and March 2021, while during the same period in 2020, it exported 45,893 tons, representing a 371 tons decline in its exports year-on-year.
At the same time, market minnows Boh Plantations also recorded a slight increase in its banana exports. According to figures compiled by ASSOBACAM, it exported 4,061 tons of banana, up by 136 tons compared with the 3,925 tons it exported over the same period in 2020.
In Q2-2021, the year-on-year rise recorded in the country’s Q1-2021 banana exports will improve further. In its Q2-2021 business cycle analysis report, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) forecasts that in Cameroon, banana production will rise in Q2, 2021. This rise, the central bank explains, will be noticeable in all the production areas, including the Southwest where the producer (CDC) is planning to renovate 520 hectares of banana plantations.
Brice R. Mbodiam