According to a recent report by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Cameroon imported goods for an overall envelope of FCFA 3,856.9 billion in 2019. These imports come from 73 countries around the world, and China which tops Cameroon’s supplier, with 16.1% of imports, followed by France, with 8.1% of imported goods. Cameroon’s third supplier is an African country: Togo.
This West African country supplied 6.6% of goods to our country in 2019, but this position is not justified by its productive capacities, but is rather the result of transhipments carried out at the port of Lomé, towards from the ports of Kribi or Douala, Cameroon.
“For example, although it is not an exporter of fuels and other lubricants, customs statistics indicate that Togo supplied Cameroon with 500,000 tonnes of these products in 2019,” Nigeria, fourth, delivered goods for 6.3% to Cameroon, and Belgium appears in the top five with 5.7%.
The INS note also indicates that Cameroon spent the sum of 807 billion FCFA in 2019 to import food products, in this case rice (with 59.4% imported in 2019) and wheat. “These imports are up 14.9% year-on-year. Alone, we officially learn, imports of food products represented more than 20% of the overall envelope spent by Cameroonian importers in 2019.
