Report reveals Cameroon has capacity to triple cocoa production.

The organisation said Cameroon rose two spots up to occupy the fourth position in the global cocoa market in 2023, the year cocoa prices witnessed a significant hike.

According to the national statistics institute, last year, Cameroon captured 7.6% of the global market, as per findings put together by the Economic Competitiveness Committee, a unit within the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, that works in collaboration with the NIS.

The experts say the rise was driven by a 12.7% increase in cocoa exports compared to 2022. 

Most of Cameroon’s cocoa, they showed, went to the Netherlands, that bought73.8% of total output; followed by Malaysia, with 9.4% purchase; Indonesia, 8.0%; and Turkey, 3.2%.

In quantitative terms, the National Institute of Statistics stated that the country exported 180,095 tons of raw cocoa beans in 2023, which is 55,445 tons less than in 2022. 

However, the revenue generated from these exports increased by 12.9% year-over-year, reaching over 359 billion FCFA.

While Cocoa made up a modest 12% of Cameroon’s total export revenue for the year reviewed. They stated that the increase in revenue was largely due to a 21.2% rise in international cocoa prices. 

The attributed this price surge to a slide in production by major exporting countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which ranked first and third globally with 33.7% and 11.2% market shares, respectively.

Barely two years back, many farmers in the country allowed their farms to fallow and shifted to cultivating food crops because of low cocoa prices and the hike in transborder trade for basic foodstuffs.

With the tendency for cocoa prices to continue to rise, abandoned farms are being revived, new plantations are being opened, while big time investors are being attracted into the sector.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3235 of Friday September 20, 2024