Meme Division: Minister Mbairobe inaugurates AIVDP-constructed cocoa, palm oil semi-industrial processing units.

In Kumba, the South West Association of Cooperative Unions with Board of Directors received a newly constructed semi-industrial processing unit to ease the production of cocoa butter and other byproducts. 

In Bome Bakundu, the community received a Semi-Industrial Oil Palm Transformation unit of Fresh Fruits Bunches to palm oil, kernel oil and kernel cake.

The AIVDP realised the two giant projects with funding from the Islamic Development Bank and the government to the tune of over 1.4 billion FCFA.

The Semi Industrial Oil Palm Transformation unit is a two tons per hour processing unit that will transform fresh fruits bunches into palm oil, kernel oil and kernel cake. 

The project involved the construction of a mill structure, an office bloc, five oil storage tanks, a borehole and overhead tower and the installation of a 160KVA transformer. 

It also included the supply and installation of weighbridge, fresh fruits bunches loading conveyor, fresh fruits bunches sterilizer, sterilized fruit bunch conveyor, thresher drum, threshed fruit conveyor, digester, screw press and vibrating screen. 

The facility also has a vertical clarifier tank, pure oil tank, sludge drain tank, bottom sludge tank, oil dryer and tank, cake breaker conveyor, nut polishing drum, pneumatic fiber/nut separator, nut conveyor, kernel cracker, kernel/shell separator, kernel conveyor, kernel elevator, kernel silo, hot water tank, kernel oil press, steam boiler, steam distributor, oil storage tanks and sludge stabilization pit.

Other major projects in the region executed by AIVDP include the construction of two cocoa processing plants in Kumba and Mamfe, two oil palm processing plants in Bombe Bakundu and Bachuo- Akagbe, two rice transformation plants in Akwaya still to be completed. 

Also, an Irish potatoes processing unit in Nkongle Lebialem, cassava grinding mills and press, plantain chip processing equipment, plantain, groundnut, citrus seedlings and solar dryers to cocoa cooperatives.

Addressing the Minister and his entourage during the ceremony in Kumba, the President of the South West Association of Cooperative Unions with Board of Director, who leads over 30,000 cocoa farmers saluted the government for the continuous support to farmers. 

Given that the project was launched in 2019 at the peak of the Anglophone crisis, he pleaded for a second phase of the project now that calm and peace has returned to the region.

He also pleaded for the creation and construction of more farm-to-market roads and the rehabilitation of existing ones to ease circulation of goods and services within the region to market destinations.

On his part, Mukete Richard Lokando, President of the Meme- Fako integrated Oil palm Processing and Marketing Cooperative Society-BOD, which manages the semi-industrial oil mill in Bombe Bakundu, said the construction, completion provisional handing over of the project was timely. 

He expressed joy that costs involved in harvesting of fresh fruits, assembling the bunches, transportation to local mill, processing loose nuts from the bunches, hiring drums and boiling the nuts, high mill charges at a very low rate of extraction, lack of ready markets for oil would become a thing of the past. 

On his part, the Project Coordinator, Dr Besong Ntui Orgork, said the main challenge encountered during the implementation of the project was extreme insecurity, resulting in prolong delays in the realization of the works and loss of costly components of the equipment due to vandalism. 

Speaking to the press after inaugurating the two facilities, Minister Gabriel Mbairobe said the semi palm oil processing unit would boost yields and minimize the amount of palm oil imported by Cameroon. 

He said the country imports 200,000 tons of palm oil every year to meet national needs because the yields from the fields are low and waste recorded in the processing of fruits.

“The fact that producers have a processing unit next to their plantation not only gives them access to the market but also allows them to earn more money,” Mbairobe said. 

He added that the project falls in line with government initiative to modernize agriculture, which requires that every product have a market to give it competitive advantage. 

“We are proud that it's a unit managed by a federation of cooperatives because the cooperative movement is very important in our country, as it allows not only to unite energies for more results, but also to distribute equitably the benefits of a sector. It is a first step towards inter-professionalism, the ultimate goal of every producer grouping for a sector,” he added. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3657 of Tuesday December 16, 2025