• (Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon records trade surpluses with the Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia mainly due to cocoa shipments.
• Cocoa and derivatives represent 84% of Indonesia’s imports from Cameroon, 72% for the Netherlands, and 68% for Malaysia.
• Cameroon’s Competitiveness Committee urges increased domestic cocoa processing to sustain and expand these surpluses.

Despite Cameroon’s overall trade deficit over the past decade, Yaoundé posts trade surpluses with a select group of countries, according to the 2024 report on national economic competitiveness. The document identifies Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Chad, Spain, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Central African Republic, Indonesia and Gabon as Cameroon’s top ten trading partners.

The analysis highlights the dominant role of cocoa and its derivatives in Cameroon’s surpluses with the Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia, which stand out as the country’s main cocoa buyers.

The report shows that cocoa and its derivatives represent 84% of Indonesia’s imports from Cameroon. The share reaches 72% in the Netherlands and 68% in Malaysia. The data underscores the extent to which Cameroon’s export earnings with these partners depend on its flagship agricultural commodity.

Italy, which posted Cameroon’s largest bilateral trade surplus in 2024 at $267.4 million, also buys Cameroonian cocoa. However, cocoa accounts for only 2% of Italy’s total imports from Cameroon, making its contribution marginal despite the overall surplus.

Cameroon’s Competitiveness Committee urges the country to scale up industrial capacity to capture more value from its cocoa advantage.

“To reinforce and sustain these surpluses, it would be appropriate to further promote increased local processing of exported resources, notably through the development of first- and second-stage cocoa-processing industries,” the report states. “Such momentum would not only enable the capture of greater added value, but also broaden the export basket toward finished or semi-finished products, while strengthening national industrialization.”

This article was initially published in French by BRM

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum

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