High-yielding cocoa plants distributed to cocoa farmers in the Centre, South and East production zones appear to be yielding fruits if production trends so far registered are something to go by.
According to the monthly report jointly published by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB) and the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Board (CICC), production rose by 42 percent during the first three months of the season, August through October, according to CT calculations. Cocoa production, and this include exports and grindings, came up to 127,518 metric tons against 89,610 metric tons the preceding season. Output for October alone rose to 40,000 metric tons from 24,000 tons a year earlier, the board said in an e-mailed report from the port city of Douala.
In effect, the increase in production is a logical output of what the Cameroon Cocoa Development Authority (Société de développement de cacao-SODECAO) has so far injected in to the production chain. Statistics from the institution indicates that over 1.4 million high-yielding plants were shared to farmers and 1,100 hectares of farms created in 2007. These plants when planted yield their first fruit after two to two and half years. As a result of the supply, farmers in the central region now produce as much as their colleagues in the southwest where production so far remained highest, an official of SODECAO said.
From every indication, the increase is expected to remain in continuum in the years to come following additional supplies in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2008, SODECAO shared more than 4.1 million young plants to farmers and caused the creation of 3,500 hectares of farms. A year after that is, 2009, the authority further distributed 5 million plants and created 4,000 hectares of farms. The 2010/2011 season will witness the distribution of between 4 and 5 million plants and creation of 4,000 hectares of farm land, SODECAO statistics further indicated. These supplies follow the agreement SODECAO signed with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the 2008/2009 cocoa season.
Cameroon, the World’s fifth producer of the crop after Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria, produced 198,000 metric tons of the chocolate ingredients in the 2009/2010 season compared to 205,000 metric tons the year before, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board said in August during the launching of the season in Muyuka.
Exports from the main port of Douala in October stood at 33,930 metric tons against 23,143 tons last year while grindings from Sic Cacao and CHOCOCAM, the country’s two main processing industries, came up to 5,600 metric tons against 1,347 metric tons.
A kilogram of the beans fetched FCFA 1,111 average in the South West, the country’s highest production zone, according to Abong Abraham, President of Ekona Farmers’ Cooperative interviewed on phone. Farmers in the Littoral Region gave out the beans at average FCFA 1,155 a kilogram while those in the South sold at FCFA 1,168 and those in the Center, FCFA 1,186, according to CT calculations from rates from the Cocoa and Coffee Information Relay Centers in Bafia, Nkongsamba and Ebolowa.
