During the last cocoa campaign, Cameroon locally transformed 32,803 tonnes of cocoa, including 11 tonnes of handcrafted, says the national cocoa and coffee Board (NCCB).

This volume of transformation, which represents barely 20 per cent of estimated domestic production to slightly more than 206,000 tonnes, is essentially to put the assets of the company Sic Cacaos, a subsidiary of Barry Callebaut, which, we learn, has thereby increased its performance by 6.7% in the last year.

According to the inter-professional Council for cocoa and coffee (CICC), the firm plans to increase its performance, thanks to the "effective start up of the investment programme which aims to increase production capacity of the plant to 50,000 tonnes per year in the near future.

"With 20 000 tonnes expected from the two new units of transformation are the Noha Nyamedjo in Douala (15,000 tonnes) company and Fapam Industry of Mbalmayo in the region of the Centre (5000 tonnes), analyzes the CICC, "it emerges in perspective, in the medium term, a local capacity to 70,000 tons by industrial units. This will represent 30% of the current production of cocoa beans in the country.