Cameroon has banned the export of its cocoa to Nigeria. The Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, made the announcement during a crisis meeting held on June 13, 2023, in Yaoundé.
According to sources working at the Ministry of Trade, the recent ban was imposed because the illegal export of Cameroonian cocoa to Nigeria has been on the rise in recent years.
For decades, Cameroonian cocoa actors have accused Nigeria of siphoning off a significant part of its production from the Southwest region of Cameroon.
“For 30 years, we have noticed a lack of government will to solve this issue. Nigerians come as far as Kumba, Mamfe. They exploit Cameroonians. The State cannot tell us that it doesn’t have the means to deal with this problem,” said Kate Fotso, MD of Telcar Cocoa, Cameroon’s leading cocoa exporter and a local supplier of US giant Cargill, in 2017.
The sources emphasized that the situation became worse after the spark of the separatist conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon at the end of 2016. For local cocoa operators, Cameroon’s porous borders and Nigeria’s competitive prices are also responsible for the situation.
