The launch of this new season took place on September 11, 2020 in Yaoundé. It was during a ceremony chaired by the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana. The 2020-2021 cocoa campaign is on track. The related ceremony was chaired by the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who placed this 2020-2021 cocoa campaign under the theme “vigilance – confidence – resilience”.
Due to the current health crisis marked by the coronavirus pandemic, the official ceremony was held in Yaoundé for the first time since 2016. Instead of speeches, the format of exchanges was favored.
Thus, at the end of the discussions, we learned that improving the quality of cocoa beans “is the only guarantee of increasing competitiveness on the international market and also of guaranteeing a better price. This involves the promotion of qualitative excellence, that is to say the adoption of a unanimous policy of processing cocoa between harvest and post-harvest.”
Immediately afterwards, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gabriel Mbairobe, indicated that a census of producers is underway throughout the national territory. Also, efforts are made to increase the quantity of production as well as a point of honor is placed on local processing.
During the ceremony, the National Cocoa and Coffee Office (ONCC) revealed that the national marketed production of the 2019-2020 season has fallen by 14,633 tonnes compared to the previous season. “We have therefore gone from 264,253 tonnes in 2018-2019 to 257,151 tonnes in 2019-2020. The main actors attributing this poor performance to the security crisis in the North-West and South-West regions, to unfavorable climate changes and also to the Coovid-19 crisis which paralyzed the deployment in the production basins.”
Regarding prices, during the last season, the situation on the world markets had repercussions on the sector in Cameroon. The ratios representing the share of the FOB price paid to the growers varied between 56.78% and 92.35%. The maximum price paid to the producer was 1300 FCFA / kg against 1270 FCFA for the 2018-2019 campaign. And the minimum price recorded at the start of the campaign was 700 FCFA / kg against 650 the previous campaign, specifies Le Messager.
Also took part in this ceremony, Michel Arrion, the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), the governor of the Center region as well as the presidents of the Interprofessional Council of Cocoa and Coffee (CICC) and the ‘National Cocoa and Coffee Office.
