Agriculture products and oil are predominant in Cameroon’s exports sheet. Petroleum accounts for more than 50 percent of the country’s total exports. Cocoa is a cash crop grown throughout the humid tropics with about 6.5 million hectares planted with the crop in 57 countries. Although cocoa has been cultivated for centuries in Central America, it is a relative newcomer to Africa, and even more recent in Asia.
Cocoa production was introduced in the coastal zone of Cameroon since 1892 from the South America by colonial organizations and to provide processing industries located in the West with the raw material they needed.
The production of cocoa begins in the tropical regions around the Equator, where the hot and humid climate is well suited for growing cocoa trees. 70% of the world’s cocoa beans come from four West African countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. Cameroon, cocoa production is still characterized by traditional techniques, vast plantations with poor yields, low adoption rate of selected plants.
There are 600,000 cocoa farmers across Cameroon, and it is a vital sector for rural communities. But cocoa is a fragile crop with yields that tend to decrease over time, putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk. Presently, new seed varieties is helping cocoa crops bloom and farmers thrive.
Read Also: Combating Deforestation through Sustainable Cocoa Production in Ghana and Ivory Coast
With a population of 23.7 million, Cameroon is the 5th largest cocoa producing country in the world. In 1999, the country produced cocoa beans of about 150,000 tons, growing 275,000 metric tons in 2013.
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During the 2017-2018 cocoa campaign, which was officially wrapped up in Mid-July, Cameroon marketed a national production estimated at 253,510 tons, a volume up by 22,000 tons compared to the 231,510 tons marketed during the previous campaign. In 2018 Cameroon produced about 290,000 tons of cocoa beans, which accounts for about 5.5% of all the cocoa beans produced worldwide. While Cocoa production in 2019 is about 264,000 tonnes.
Since 1994, farmers have sold their cocoa on the international market. The majority of the Central African nation’s annual output of about 220,000 tons is shipped overseas from Douala’s Atlantic port. Processed cocoa products such as paste and butter account for around 15% of cocoa export earnings. Cocoa Export companies in Cameroon including Douala, Loum, Mamfe, Bamenda, and more.
The country lies between latitudes 1° and 13°N, and longitudes 8° and 17°E. Cameroon controls 12 nautical miles of the Atlantic Ocean. Tourist literature describes Cameroon as “Africa in miniature” because it exhibits all major climates and vegetation of the continent; coast, desert, mountains, rainforest, and savanna.
The country has on its territory all types of intertropical climates. Growing conditions for cocoa are ideal in the Congo Basin region, where rainforests maintain moist tropical conditions. Cameroon has good soils (e.g. volcanic, ferralitic) in regions of high, medium and low altitude. The Cameroonian cocoa belt represents about 37% of the total cultivated soil of the country.
The Southwest Region is home to Cameroon’s most productive growing zones, producing just under half of the Central African nation’s 230,000 tonnes a year output. There has been a surge in protests by the English speaking minority against the dominance of the francophone majority. The crisis in anglophone Cameroon is damaging the Southwest Region’s economy, with the cocoa trade tumbling.
Despite the fact that demand in Cameroon has arisen for Cocoa, the country remains largely what they always were a raw material shipped to the West.
In 2019, Cocoa farmgate prices have risen sharply in Cameroon has bean quality improved. But this year, Cocoa prices have been trading below $2,700 per tonne since early-March, a level not seen since January, as concerns the coronavirus may curb demand are offsetting fears over the crop outlook in West Africa, according to Trading Economics 2020 forecast.
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