Producers and those involved in processing the raw materials into vegetable oil and other finished products have assured government and the entire public that the products (vegetable oil, savon... ) will be available in quality and quantity before, during and after end-of-year festivities.

Speaking to the press yesterday December 12 in a news conference, the Secretary General of the Association of Producers of the Oil-yielding Plants Sector (ASROC), Jacquis Kemleu Tchabgou, said considerable stocks of the products have been put at the disposal of the Ministry of Trade which will in the days ahead engage promotional sales nationwide.

Regional Governors, he noted, will collaborate to ensure that unscrupulous business people who usually create artificial scarcity of the products so as to feed fat on innocent citizens are kept at bay. ASROC itself, Jacquis Kemleu Tchabgou disclosed, will organise promotional sales to tell the public that the product is available and at unchanged prices.

He said nothing will also be left to chance to ensure that homologated standards, NC77:2002-03, Rev.1 (2011), on vegetable oil, is respected to the letter. "Consumers can ascertain that the product respects standards by verifying if the container bears a mark with inscription, "Aliment Enrichi" or "Fortified Food," the ASROC Secretary General said.

Cameroon, he noted, has machines that can refine about 589,000 tons of vegetable oil per year and that as at moment, dealers in Mayor, Palm Or, Diamaor, Azur and other local marks have confirmed that over 32,000 tons of the products are available.

Against fears that neighbouring countries could sweep the products at the detriment of local consumers, Jacquis Kemleu Tchabgou assured that there is a regulatory committee for the oils which prohibits exportation during periods of high national demand.