Cocoa bean arrivals at Cameroon’s main port of Douala for the 2019/2020 season stood at 257,151 tonnes by July 15, down 2.7% from the same period a year ago, data from the cocoa regulator showed on Wednesday.
The regulator gave no reason for the decrease. However, output from Cameroon’s top cocoa-growing South West Region has slipped over the past two years due to a separatist insurgency.
The data showed that the Netherlands, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Germany were the main destinations for Cameroon’s cocoa exports and that 60,504 tonnes of the cocoa was processed locally.
Commodities majors Cargill and Olam were the main buyers, accounting for 84% of purchases on the international market, the data showed.
The regulator has not yet given a production forecast for the 2020/2021 season, which is expected to open on Sept. 11. (Reporting by Josiane Kouagheu Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Aaron Ross and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
