ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to study the cocoa market
in Cameroon over the period 2000 to 2016. The study consisted in presenting in
a general way the organization, structure and operating mechanisms of the
Cameroon cocoa market, particularly the value chains from family farmers to
final consumers through exports; it also allowed us to highlight some issues
and prospects for reviving the cocoa sector in Cameroon. It shows that
Cameroon, like most cocoa-producing countries, also faces many difficulties not
only externally, but also because of the international environment (the
volatility of the prices of export products), internally through implemented
policy measures, their consistency and phasing, as well as their deadlines.
Starting from the liberalization of the sector in the early 1990s to the
devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994, a relative stagnation of the country’s
agricultural performance has been noted so far. The problem is therefore not
only institutional and structural but also cyclical. With regard to domestic
marketing, the government’s option of a return to stabilization will reaffirm
the place and the role of the State in the management of the sector. As far as
external marketing is concerned, to remedy this, the government option consists
of setting up a state-controlled advanced sale system through the
centralization of sales and the monitoring of their quantitative execution.
However, for a development of Cameroon’s artisanal, semi-industrial and
industrial cocoa processing industry, we need strong support and protection of
the local industry in order to attract foreign investors and encourage local initiatives,
with accompanying measures that make cocoa processing more profitable in
Cameroon as in other producing countries.