Boosting ‘Made in Cameroon’: SAILD strengthens capacity of bakers on transforming local flours.

It was organised by the Support Service for Local Development Initiatives, known by the French acronym as SAILD. 

The training workshop, which brought together over 20 artisanal bakers and pastry chefs, was organised as part a project called “Empowering local artisanal bakeries incorporating local flours for bread and pastry making’’. The project is funded by the Agroecological Fund.

According to the Project Manager, Rodrigue Kouang, SAILD and her partner, ACDIC, are determined to ensure that local flours are actually used in the production of bread, pastries and other baked goods. 

Kouang mentioned that their findings showed that local bakers deploy varied processes in the making bread from local flour among artisans thus the need to strengthen their capacities in the production of bread made from local flour. 

“It is with this in mind that we decided to organise this capacity-building training, not because artisans lack skills or production techniques, but to try to harmonise the approach to bread making using local flour in Cameroon,” Kouang told The Guardian Post. 

Beside the need to harmonise the process for bread making from local flours, the project manager said they also intended to see to what extent a technical data sheet could be produced for use by the various stakeholders. 

“Indirectly, it is also a question of getting other stakeholders, other young artisans, pastry chefs and bakers interested in producing bread using local flours,” he added. 

One of the workshop facilitators, Chef Sophie Engome, said in keeping with the slogan of promoting and consuming Made in Cameroon, it is important to begin with bread which is an essential product for denizens.

“If we are to start consuming Cameroonian products, I think we should start with bread because I believe that most Cameroonians eat bread,” she said. 

Highlighting the need to pass across the expertise and techniques of baking to youth she said: “In primary school, if we teach our children to take charge, to learn even the taste of certain foods, they will never forget. They will be the first, not only consumers, but also the first transformers of this project that is so dear to our hearts”.
Essomba Ebanga Joseph, a trained telecommunications inspector, became an agro-pastoral entrepreneur in 2015. 

He told The Guardian Post the capacity building workshop was very enriching as he hopes to use the knowledge acquired during the workshop to boost his entrepreneurship.

“As part of this training, we learned how to make bread using local flours. We mainly used cassava flour and potato flour in conventional proportions of 15% as regulated by ANOR,” he averred.

The training was also an opportunity for the participants to share their experiences, network with stakeholders in the agri-food sector. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3627 of Monday November 17, 2025