CDC records third year of increase in banana exports.

According to the association, over the past three years, CDC banana output has risen from 3,552 tons in 2024, to 3,822 in 2025 and to 4,231 tons as at end of March, 2026.

To the association, exports from the state-owned corporation in statistical terms rose by 7.6%. ASSOBACAM insisted that the increase marks the company’s third-best yearly performance in 15 months as it keeps struggling to recover from the ravages of the Anglophone crisis.

The ray of hope notwithstanding, data from the ASSOBACAM also show that since returning to the export market in June 2020, the CDC has yet to exceed 5,000 tons in monthly shipments, a level the corporation attained before the crisis. 

With the analysts agreeing that the situation of the corporation reflects ongoing difficulties in recovering from the impact of separatist unrest in the country’s North West and South West regions that began and escalated in late 2016.

Recalling that faced with attacks on workers and the occupation of plantations by armed groups, the company suspended operations between September 2018 and June 2020. 

Nearly six years after resuming production, recovery remains slow despite continued state financial support.

Overall, ASSOBACAM revealed that Cameroon’s banana exports rose sharply in March 2026, supported mainly by strong performance from all the leading producers. 

According to ASSOBACAM, exporters shipped a total of 23,977 tons as at end of the month of March 2026, up from 19,585 tons in March 2025. This, they said, represents an increase of 4,392 tons, or 22.4% year-on-year.

The association insisted that the growth was largely driven by Plantations du Haut Penja, PHP, the Cameroonian subsidiary of France’s Compagnie fruitière de Marseille. 

PHP, it revealed, exported 17,850 tons in March 2026, compared with 13,809 tons a year earlier, representing an increase of 4,041 tons, or 29.2%.

In contrast, Compagnie des Bananes de Mondoni, CDBM, another subsidiary of Compagnie fruitière, is steadily expanding its presence. 

The company exported 2,305 tons in March 2026, compared with 1,304 tons in March 2025, marking a 76.8% increase.

Combined, PHP and CDBM, it stated, accounted for more than 84% of Cameroon’s banana exports in March 2026. 

Both companies, it said, acquired the assets of Boh Plantations Plc, previously the only private operator with domestic capital in the sector.

Bananas remain one of Cameroon’s key export earners. In 2025, banana exports generated 67.7 billion FCFA in revenue, up 84.7% year-on-year, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3761 of Wednesday April 15, 2026