Cocoa sector at risk of collapse over heavy tax burden on farmers.

They state that, unlike in 2025 when a kilogramme of cocoa sold for a historic 6,000 FCFA, market prices have crashed to 1,500 FCFA per kilogramme, sending shock waves across the sector.

Many are now lamenting that despite the price crash, government has maintained sealed lips over the many taxes it introduced last year when the cash crop sold at exciting prices. 

Given the expectations of the last farming season, farm inputs remain excessively high, coupled with the taxes. The situation has sparked farmer fatigue, slowing interest in the sector that appeared to pick steam just last year.

Given that farmers are the mainstay of the cocoa value chain, many say, there is urgent need to review the heavy taxes that end up being transferred to farmers. 

If the looming catastrophe is left unaddressed, economists say what could follow next is a sharp fall in production, poor quality, farmers abandoning plantations and general decline in Cameroon’s Gross Domestic Product, GPD.

Taxes upsetting sector 

Before now, the levy of the National Cocoa and Coffee Board, NCCB, was capped at 75 FCFA per kilogramme and 75,000 FCFA per metric tonne of cocoa exported. 

Government increased the levy to 150 FCFA per kilogramme and 150,000 FCFA per metric tonne. The amount was communicated through a decision of the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, dated January 13, 2025.

Meanwhile, on April 1, 2024, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, signed another decision that fixed a customs levy of 10% of Free On Board, FOB, value. 

This translated to an estimated 200,000 FCFA levy per metric tonne with an assumption that every metric tonne of cocoa export cost 2 million FCFA.

In addition to these, industry actors add that, there are other sectoral taxes which came into force in recent years that have further worsened the suffering of farmers. 

Putting this side by side the high cost of pesticides, fungicides, fertilizer in addition to labour and transportation cost among others, most farmers now say, farming cocoa is no longer a profitable venture.

How excessive taxation killing sector

The major drawback of the heavy tax burden, it is being said and truly so, is widespread poverty and indebtedness across thousands of cocoa-growing communities. 

Some have started lampooning the government for putting in place a system that is rather milking farmers than protect them.

Other consequences of what farmers say are killer taxes play out through but not limited to; abandonment of farms as earnings continue to evaporate, loss of motivation for new persons to take on cocoa farming, collapse of sustainability efforts as many now detest best practices, sharp decline in farm management, poor yields, rapid deterioration of quality as farmers rush sales and reduce fermentation periods.

Loss of reputation and Foreign Exchange resulting from downturn in export volumes. The thriving large-scale smuggling of cocoa to Nigeria has also been blamed on government’s excessive taxation. Farmers say there are less controls and lower taxes on the Nigerian market.

The trend of things, analysts say, means Cameroon also risks losing its reputation for cocoa quality. The system in place that has caused farmers to be grumbling, it is also said rather cheers fraud, weakens controls, and undermines national interests.

Already, there are reports of some farmers now shifting to crop cultivation to escape what they say is the deathtrap of the cocoa sector blamed on insensitive taxation. 

It is a trend which experts note that if allow to gain ground, it will be difficult to reverse and keep interest in cocoa farming alive.

Cocoa sector going coffee sector way?

Across many communities, it is reported that there is already huge anxiety that the cocoa sector will, before everyone knows it, collapse like the coffee sector. 

They recall that there was a time when coffee farming had huge national relevance until similar pressures pushed it to the precipice and eventual collapse.

The coffee sector, some farmers are stating, had the same trajectory before reaching rock-bottom. They mentioned declining production, poor quality, farmer exit, and eventual loss of economic relevance.

They stated that coffee was once a flagship export crop like cocoa but it was slowly strangled by poor incentives, low farm-gate prices, and weak policy responses. 

What government can do

In the push for a balance, farmers insist that government cannot continue to chop when there are boom seasons and fail to take measures to protect from market instability as is the case now. 

They are asking for real actions that match the harsh realities that have put millions of families that rely on cocoa farming in distress.

Among the urgent measures to address the chaos, farmers have among other things appealed to the powers that be to suspend the boom period taxes or review them. 

They added that fiscal pressure on sector must tie with market realities, need for adaptive farmer protection mechanisms, incentives for quality, sustainability, and formal exports must be restored. 

In their thinking, they are simply asking for a fair deal and timely action in the interest of the entire nation.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3691 of Monday February 02, 2026