Cameroon Goverment Targets 60% Cocoa Increase

Cameroon will raise its annual cocoa output to as much as 300,000 tonnes within five years from current levels of around 190,000 tonnes. Micheal Ndoping the General Manager of the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB), said available farmland , low taxes and high farm gate prices were encouraging farmers to grow more cocoa but middlemen and poor roads were still cutting margins.

Global cocoa supplies have been finely balanced and futures traded in London and New York risen over the last year, supported by fears of a poor crop in nearby Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producers.

In five years we will definitely make the 250,000 tonnes, if not more. We could easily hit 300,000 Ndoping told the press in Yaoundé. Benchmark cocoa futures for delivery in May sold at 1,897 pounds per tone in London on Wednesday, and while they have fallen from late January’s high of more than 2,000 pounds , are still up more than 7% from the start of the year.

Analyst say the outlook for Ivory Coast, which normally produces around 1.3 million tones but this year is forecast at 1 million tones, is particularly gloomy and could fall dramatically if steps are not taken to help farmers invest in their crops. We are small but we can fill some of the gap. We have good climate and hard working people. If Cameroonians know they can make money from cocoa, they will do it.

Investment Sought figures for the 2008/2009 season showed Cameroon produced 182,583 tonnes of cocoa between August and February, of which a local grinder bought 24,915 tonnes and the remaining 24,915 tonnes exported. Ndoping said farm-gate prices were roughly FCFA 900 I.e. is $ 1.85 per kg over the last few years, meaning Cameroonians farmers earned far more than their counterpart in other countries in the region. Ivorian farmers have been receiving roughly FCFA 500 per kg.

The cocoa and coffee Development Fund (FODECC) was helping farmers with pest and disease management and improve support services, he said. Following the liberalization of Cameroon’s cocoa sector government export taxes on beans were slashed though the Fund received levies of 15 francs per kg exported. The governments NCCB receives a further FCFA 8.5 while the private sector-led Cocoa and Coffee inter professional Board (CCIB) is paid 15 francs per kg.

Cameroon, once a major oil producer which is now seeking investment in it mining sector and hydroelectric sector, is also a minor coffee producer