BY NDUMBE BELL JG in Douala
The rapidly changing dynamics in the commodity market around the globe has ignited several initiatives and incentives made by government to prevent significant discounts towards Cameroonian cocoa producers in particular, both in the nation and especially internationally.
In retrospect, a monitoring platform devised to support other initiatives had been taken by the state and industrial actors of the sector or stakeholders. Some of these efforts to tackle issues related to the assurance of quality were set up such as what they called a quality bonus for cocoa beans as a means to get producers improve the quality, and the setting up of post-harvest processing centers. In addition, incentives to producers for obtaining high quality beans to the tune of nearly FCFA 5 billion was provided by the state during the 2017/2018 cocoa season, reports say.
In an evaluation exercise of these initiatives, the results from the institution in charge appeared to have been astronomically successful. For instance, towards the end of the 2020/2021 cocoa season, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (NCCB/ONCC) is said to have reported that the State’s volume of beans subjected to quality checks in that season, spiked. Another significant milestone also reported by the board declared that it is in this same period that producers realised the highest percentage of grade one (I) beans which, they remarked, was the best quality for over 20 years.
In acknowledgement and recognition of the results, the state is said to have been admitted by the International Cocoa Organization (I.C.C.O) in what they say is a “very selective club” in June 2023, giving Cameroon the status of organoleptic quality or fine cocoa producer with good aroma and taste included.
To set the ball rolling, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER), Gabriel Mbairobe is said to have launched a new regulatory, monitoring, sanitary, alert and phytosanitary surveillance platform aimed at evaluating cocoa and coffee quality. This exercise underlines government’s resolve to set up a more competitive edge for the nation’s commodities at the international level. The new platform which is an exchange mechanism between the public (MINADER) and private sector stakeholders in the agro-industrial sector of these commodities, is within the framework of the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Council (C.I.C.C).
The newly launched platform which was created on January 19, 2023 but launched recently, has as major objective to ensure the sanitary safety of these commodities, subject to the standards and norms (regulation) of national and international requirements such as the upper limits for pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins packaging material standards, mandatory treatment etc. The platform will act as an identification space for the sources of information from international trade groupings or portals. The platform is to act as a whistleblower to sanitary and phytosanitary levels and status for cocoa and coffee and informations on interceptions and possible rejections by buyer countries among others. All chemical, microbiological and physical scrutiny will be taken care of, declared MINADER.