During the 2017-18 campaign which ended mid-July, Cameroon hit significant progress improving its quality label. Indeed, the country known as a grade II cocoa exporter (over 90% of export volumes in the last three seasons), shipped about 9,000 tons of grade I beans.

“The volume of beans exported in grade I rose from 1,099 tons in 2016-17 to 8,933 tons in 2017-2018, a 713% year-on-year increase,” said Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, the trade minister during the launching of the 6th edition of the Cameroon International Cocoa Festival (Festicacao) August 8 in Yaoundé.

According to the minister, this growth momentum “is set to go further following the generalization and extension of the program designed to establish a number of centers of excellence for cocoa post-harvest processing in the country's production basins”. The program is piloted by the Interprofessional Council for Cocoa and Coffee (CICC), along with partners such as the Fédération des chocolatiers et confiseurs de France.

BRM

The Lagos-based Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) organized Aug 14 an economic forum in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, focusing on partnership opportunities for local economic operators with Indonesian businessmen.

“We need your cotton and cocoa,” said Simon Tumanggor, ITCP deputy director in Lagos, calling Cameroonian economic operators to attend the 33rd Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) in Jakarta next October 24-28.

Simon said this could be an opportunity to tie wealth - creating partnerships, to boost trade which so far is almost nil between both countries.

BRM

Out of the 253,510 tons of cocoa officially marketed in Cameroon during the 2017-2018 campaign which has just been, 53,494 tons were processed locally. 53,403 tons had been processed by industrials and 91 tons by small-scale processors.  

Compared to the 33,023 tons processed during the 2016-2017 campaign, this represents a rise by 20,000 tons. Despite this, it is worth noting that Cameroon processed only 25% of its production while the cocoa sector’s recovery plan expects the country to be able to process 50% of its production by 2020 and produce 600,000 tons annually. According to various actors in the sector, these targets couldn’t be met.

This is evidenced by the statement of Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, the trade minister on August 8, 2018, while launching the sixth edition of Festival international du cacao camerounais (FESTICACAO). Indeed, the minister expects the country’s processing capacity to be between 130,000 and 150,000 tons in the coming three years, far from the 300,000 tons forecasted in the recovery plan.

Let’s note that this processing capacity will become effective during the 2018-2019 (officially launched on August 7, 2018) with the commissioning of a new processing plant in the industrial zone of Kribi deepwater port in the South by Atlantic Cocoa.  

The first processing units to be built in the port, these plants are part of a CFA50 billion agribusiness project lead by the Ivorian economic operator Koné Dossongui and, they will be commissioned by the end of this year according to authorized sources. The plants will have a yearly processing capacity of 48,000 tons extensible to 64,000 tons, Georges Wilson, managing director of Atlantic Cocoa revealed.

Brice R. Mbodiam     

During the 2017-2018 cocoa campaign, which was officially wrapped up in Mid-July, Cameroon marketed a national production estimated at  253,510 tons, a volume up by 22,000 tons compared to the 231,510 tons marketed during the previous campaign.

This increase in production occurs despite an environment marked by violence imposed by the English-speaking separatists in the Southwest which is one of the largest cocoa producing basins in Cameroon.

According to figures published on August 7, 2018 by the National Coffee-Cocoa Board during the official launch of the 2018-2019 cocoa campaign in Ngomedzap, a production basin in the Central region, the Southwest contributed 31.5% in the overall cocoa bean purchases in the country against 50.3% and 7% for the Central and Coastal regions respectively.

During the campaign under review, the average farmgate price was CFA550 at the launch of the campaign in August 2017. In the inter-season however, this price capped CFA1,000 and even reached CFA1,210 according to the figures released by the board.

Brice R. Mbodiam   

The Agricultural Investment and Market Development Project PIDMA aimed at boosting the production of corn, sorghum and Cassava for agro-industries in Cameroon and for which World Bank disbursed CFA50 billion will soon launch a programme for the renovation of 190 kilometers of rural roads in the country to connect the agricultural production basins to markets.

According to information revealed on August 6, 2018, during a sensitization workshop organized in Mbalmayo, in the Central region, five regions will be considered in the framework of that programme. These are namely the Centre, the South, the Coast, the West, and Northwest.

During the workshop, World Bank and PIDMA’s coordination unit informed that the works would be realized following the CEROQ contracts (Qualified Objective Maintenance and Rehabilitation Contracts) considered to be less costly and takes less time. “This method is crucial for the country because it will help go into second generation agriculture” Thomas Ngué Bissa, the national coordinator of PIDMA said.  

Peter Tanifor, manager of World Bank’s transport unit in the Central African region, explained that the CEROQ contracts consist in prioritizing renovation methods suitable to the users’ needs over the classical methods.

“For instance, if the ministry of agriculture indicates that to move products from Nguélémedouka (in the East) to Yaoundé (in the Central region), the user only needs bikes, the engineer will build roads suitable for bikes only. In short, the road will be built according to the need expressed”, he said.

PIDMA’s managers further explained that during the test phase, they obtained competitive and acceptable costs for the project. The said method will also help tailor the works so as to guarantee the viability of the renovated rural road and avoid important variation between the works to be done, from planning to execution.

BRM

Jean Claude Eko’o Akouafane, former general secretary of the Cameroonian ministry of agriculture and rural development and admitted to assert his right to retirement a little more than a year ago, is now the new general director of Société de développement du cacao (Sodecao).

He was nominated on July 24, 2018, by a presidential decree to replace Jerôme Mvondo who spent more than 10 years in that position.  

Fully administered by the government, Sodecao constitutes, with the National Cocoa and Coffee board (ONCC), the Coffee-Cocoa trade council (CICC) and the Coffee-Cocoa development council (FODECC), the institutional framework set by Cameroon for the development of the cocoa and coffee sector.

BRM

The quantity of cocoa beans received in Douala port by end May 2018 was 223,413 tons; two months to the end of the 2017-2018 cocoa campaign (technically concluded in mid-July 2018) according to authorized sources.  

Compared to the 249,573 tons exported from Douala port by the same period during the 2016-2017 campaign, the current performance represents a drop of 10%.

According to the actors of that sector, this drop in the performance is due to the violence perpetrated for more than a year now in the English speaking regions, mainly the Southwest which is one of the largest production basins in Cameroon.

Indeed, to avoid the insecurity created by the anglophone separatists who are demanding the division of Cameroon, most of the producers in the Southwest left their villages abandoning their farms or selling their products at discounted prices. These products are then exported to Nigeria, the neighboring country which shares a porous border with that region.

Let’s remind that according to Human Is Right, a Cameroonian NGO, this year, cocoa trade in that region fell by 80% mainly because of the paralysis of the activities of Telcar Cocoa (which exports 30% of Cameroon’s overall cocoa exports), local dealer of the American firm Cargill which mainly operates in the Southwest.

Brice R. Mbodiam 

Since the end of June 2018, not less than 19 agriculture projects proposed by cooperatives are being implemented in Cameroon in the framework of the agriculture development project Projet d’investissement et de développement des marchés agricoles (PIDMA), backed by World Bank (CFA50 billion).

According to PIDMA managers, CFA4.3 billion was disbursed by PIDMA, partner financial institutions and the beneficiaries of these projects.

Indeed, according to information provided by PIDMA coordination unit, the projects are funded under a risk-sharing scheme which entered into application in May 2018. In the framework of that scheme, PIDMA provides less than 70% of the fund while the financial partners provide more than 20% and the beneficiaries at least 10%.

To be able to support more projects in the framework of PIDMA, the coordination unit signed a partnership agreement with three financial partners on July 13, 2018, in Douala. These agreements increased the number of its financial partners to nine (five banks and four microfinance institutions).

Meanwhile, the number of business plans funded thanks to those agreements should reach 23. The project managers further inform that 38 sub-projects are actually being implemented thanks to funds provided by PIDMA and the cooperatives.

Let’s remind that PIDMA was initiated to boost the production of corn, cassava, and sorghum in Cameroon and supply them to local agribusinesses.

Brice R. Mbodiam

By the end of June 2018, Cameroonian banana producers exported 113,600 tons, the Banana producers’ association(Assobacam) revealed. Compared to the 140,930 tons exported during the same period a year earlier, this represents a drop by more than 27,000 tons.

This counter-performance is mainly due to the result of the public agribusiness, Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) which is the second largest producer and the second largest employer after the civil service.

Indeed, during the period under review, the company’s exports dropped from 50,563 tons a year earlier to 29,600 tons (a decrease by 21,000 tons).

The company’s continuous counter performance (its exports volume dropped further by 19,000 tons during Q1, 2018) is due to the slowdown of its activities because of the violence perpetrated by the Anglophone secessionists against the residents in the Southwest where the company’s rubber and banana farms are located.  

However, CDC is not the only producer whose exports dropped during S1, 2018. Indeed, according to the figures published by Assobacam, the banana market leader Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP)’s exports also dropped. During that period, PHP exported 78,000 tons against 84,167 tons during S1, 2017. This represents a drop of more than 6,000 tons (the equivalent to the exports of Boh Plantation, the banana market minion, during that period).

Brice R. Mbodiam   

The Cameroonian minister of economy Alamine Ousmane Mey, has just been directed by president Paul Biya to sign three loan agreements totaling CFA34.6 billion with the Islamic Development Bank.

The first agreement is a KD3.55 million loan amounting to $4.99 million(about CFA3.22 billion) for an agriculture infrastructure construction and the development of value-added chains in Cameroon.

The second loan agreement is for the forward sale contract (to be paid in many installments) of $15.72 million (about CFA10.15 billion) for the same agriculture project mentioned above.

The last agreement is for a “Lives and Livelihood Fund” and a forward sale contract of $33 million (about CFA21.3 billion) still for the same project.

S.A