Favourable weather and improved roads have boosted the quality of cocoa beans delivered to market in Cameroons leading south-west production zone, the manager of the main exporter in the region said. Cameroon is the worlds fifth largest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and neighbouring Nigeria. It exported 162,222 tonnes of cocoa beans in the 2007/2008 season from a total production of 187,355 tonnes.
Global cocoa supplies have been finely balanced and futures have risen over the last year, supported by fears of a poor crop in Ivory Coast. Half of Cameroons cocoa production and exports come from the South-West, with its main town Kumba the largest cocoa trading centre in the central African country.
"The government began repairing and rehabilitating farm-to-market roads within the region in June 2008 easing evacuation of produce from remote key cocoa production areas such as Mamfe, Konye, Mbonge, Mundemba and Tombel," said Cameroon Marketing Company (Camaco) manager Joseph Nde.
"This has been facilitated by very favourable weather conditions characterised by moderate rainfall and bright sunshine, relieving us of muddy tracks and huge potholes that were a stumbling block to cocoa evacuation," he said, on Sunday. Nde said vehicles now spent a few hours, as opposed to days, taking cocoa to markets and there were fewer breakdowns. Many small-scale farmers were also able to transport their beans to Kumba, cutting out middlemen and getting better prices.
HIGH QUALITY BEANS: He also said improvement work on the 60 kms road from the cocoa centre in Kumba to Muea, which then leads onto the sea port in Douala, was 90 percent complete. "The beans no longer spend a lot of time with small-scale farmers who dont have good storage facilities, nor in exporters warehouses in Kumba, thus they avoid getting humid, mouldy or smoky," he said.
"We now have high quality beans on the market in the region, ensuring that both farmers, traders and exporters earn more money," Nde told Reuters. A senior official of the South-West Farmers Co-operative Union (SOWEFCU) Ltd told Reuters about 2,000-3,500 tonnes of cocoa beans were estimated to have been lost in the region during the 2007/2008 season due to mould.
Edward Abunaw, the delegate for agriculture for Manyu division in Mamfe some 170 kms north of Kumba, said the improved road network was also going a long way to combat illegal cocoa exports to neighbouring Nigeria. According to the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Board (CCIB), about 4,000 tonnes were smuggled to Nigeria in the 2007/2009 season that ended on July 31.
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