(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian forest ministry informs that in 2017, the country exported 964,209 m³ of raw woods. Compared to the 737,017 m³ exported in 2016, this represents an increase by 227,192 m ³.  

During the period under review, the country exported 666,157 m³ against 676,713 m³ a year earlier (a decrease by 10,556 m³ on a year-on-year basis).

Overall, Cameroon exported a total of 1.630 million m³ in 2017 and these exports generated about CFA271 billion revenues in the country’s treasury (10% of Cameroon’s export revenues, according to the forest ministry). According to the forest ministry, the volume of woods exported is far inferior to the Cameroonian annual potential estimated at 750 million m³.

The authority blames this underperformance on the backlogs at Douala port where woods are parked for 6 months, most of the times. This year (2018), it has been decided to ship part of the port traffic via Kribi deepwater port.

Sylvain Andzongo