(Business in Cameroon) – Over the first six months of 2018, Cameroon’s export revenues totaled CFA794.6 billion for 2.5 million tons of goods shipped. The figure reflects a decline by 16.8% compared to the same period in 2017, the National Statistics Institute (INS) said.
Despite a decrease in revenues from the sale of crude oil (-33.8%), raw aluminum (-32.8%) and raw rubber (-33.1%), the main driver of this poor performance is the cocoa-coffee sector.
According to INS, over the period reviewed, cocoa export revenues slumped by 13.4% coupled with a bigger decline for by-products such as paste and butter (-89.4% and -90.4% respectively). Meanwhile, coffee export revenues fell by 30.1%.
This decline in overall export earnings, particularly for cocoa, is primary the consequence of unrest in Anglophone regions which hampers the activities of Telcar Cocoa (U.S. Cargill’s local trader), a company which generally accounts for 30% of Cameroon’s bean exports.
Let’s however mention the improvement in the local processing sector, in recent years. Out of an officially estimated national marketed production of 253,510 tons during the 2017-2018 season, Cameroon locally processed 53,494 tons of beans, an increase by more than 20,000 tons compared to the previous year.
In need to boost the national processing capacity, a new unit (Atlantic Cocoa) with a capacity of 48,000 tons, expandable to 64,000 tons, will be commissioned at the end of 2018 in the industrial zone of the deep-water port of Kribi, south region. Cameroon could reach “a processing capacity of 130,000 to 150,000 tons over the next three years,” said the trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.
