During the month of November 2023, Cameroon exported 18,433 tonnes of bananas, according to data revealed by the Banana Association of Cameroon (Assobacam). This volume of Cameroonian banana shipments to the international market is almost stable (-141 tonnes, or -0.7%) compared to the 18,574 tonnes exported during the same period in 2022.
This stability in the volume of exports year-on-year, the local banana sector owes mainly to the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), a public agro-industrial unit which is gradually recovering from the ravages of the socio-political crisis underway in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon since end of 2016. Indeed, according to Assobacam data, CDC exports peaked at 2,000 tonnes in November 2023, up 336 tonnes (+16.8%) compared to 1,634 tonnes in the month of November 2022.
This maintenance of export dynamics among Cameroon’s 2e employer after public administration, with an average of 2,000 tonnes shipped to the market since the start of 2023, compared to just over 1,700 tonnes on average in 2022, helped mitigate the underperformance of Boh Plantations (BPL). According to data compiled by Assobacam, this private company, a small thumb in the local banana market, saw its exports fall by 48.2% in November 2023. These in fact increased from 1,337 tonnes in November 2022 to just 902 tonnes one year later.
At the same time, exports from Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), the market leader, have stabilized. They were 18,433 tonnes in November 2023, after coming out at 18,603 tonnes a year earlier. This subsidiary of the Compagnie fruitière de Marseille thus achieves its 4th best performance since the start of 2023, after the 16,652 tonnes exported in October 2023, the 15,887 tonnes of September and the 15,744 tonnes of March 2023.
As a reminder, bananas have been one of Cameroon’s main export products for a long time, particularly to European Union (EU) countries. According to the 2022 report of the Competitiveness Committee, a specialized body of the Ministry of the Economy, the banana was the 3e torchbearer of Cameroon on the international market that year, behind wood, cocoa and its derivatives. The country notably ranked 2th producer of this fruit in the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) area, and above all 10e largest exporter in the world, far behind Ecuador (world number one) and the Philippines (2e
Brice R. Mbodiam