Cameroon takes presidency of the International Cocoa Council for 2024/2025.
Cameroon has been elected to serve as President of the International Cocoa Council during the 2024/2025 term. Cameroon’s election marks a historic moment for the International Cocoa Council. The International Cocoa Council, under the leadership of Cameroon, will focus on addressing the challenges facing the cocoa sector.
Cameroon has been chosen to lead the International Cocoa Council (ICCO) for the 2024/2025 term, a decision announced unanimously by the organization on September 20, 2024. This was conveyed through an official press release signed by Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, Minister of Trade, highlighting Cameroon’s ongoing efforts to advocate for fair compensation for cocoa producers.
Before this honor, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana informed participants in the national cocoa sector that, as part of the government-led initiative to promote Cameroonian cocoa on the global stage, a major player in the global chocolate industry had recently signed a significant purchasing contract with a local cooperative specializing in high-quality cocoa production, agreeing to a farm gate price of 5,200 FCFA/kg.
According to the latest report on Cameroon’s economic competitiveness published by the Competitiveness Committee, the country achieved a significant milestone in the cocoa sector in 2023. It was revealed that Cameroon ranked as the 4th largest cocoa exporting country, holding a 7.6% share of the world market in 2023. This position marked a two-place improvement compared to the previous year, attributed to a 12.7% increase in cocoa exports from 2022. The majority of Cameroonian cocoa was exported to the Netherlands (73.8%), Malaysia (9.4%), Indonesia (8.0%), and Turkey (3.2%), according to Investir au Cameroun.
The 2023 Cameroon Foreign Trade Report by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) indicated that the country exported 180,095 tonnes of raw beans, 55,445 less than in 2022, yielding just over 359 billion FCFA. This figure represented a 12.9% increase in export revenues year-on-year and accounted for 12% of Cameroon’s total export revenues in 2023. The rise in export revenues was primarily due to a 21.2% increase in the price of cocoa on the international market, driven by reduced production in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, respectively the first and third largest exporters in the world in 2023 with 33.7% and 11.2% market shares.
