(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon’s national institute of statistics INS informs that during Q1, 2018, the country exported 1.5 million tons of goods amounting to CFA466.4 billion. On a year to year basis, this performance is a drop of 8.9% in value and 10.3% in quantity.

The INS explains that this is due to the decrease in the sale of some main exports products. These are namely cocoa beans (-17.7%), crudes (-5.5%), sawn wood (-9.4%), coffee (-38.8%), steel (-53.8%), banana and plantain (-18.8%) and rubber (-40.6%).

Unlike the trend in exports, Cameroon’s imports were estimated at CFA719 billion in value and 1.8 million tons in quantity, representing an increase by 17.2% and 22.5% in those respective estimates compared to the result in Q1, 2017.

According to the institute, these increases are the result of a rise in imports of chemical industry products (55.5%), pharmaceuticals (18.5%), Petroleum coke, petroleum bitumen and other residues (303.7%). The imports of cereals has also increased by 23.2% (20.6% for rice) and animal and related products rose by 26.1%. As far as frozen fish are concerned, the imports during the period under review grew by 18.9%.

S.A