By Lawrence Kefoy
Cameroon’s Minister of Trade LLuc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, has announced that producer prices for cocoa in Cameroon will remain strong throughout the 2025-2026 season, with prices scaling up 5,400 FCFA per kilogram.
He urged farmers to continue working hard and be vigilant against dubious buyers who will always want to trick them. The Minister was speaking at the official launch of the cocoa season August 7, 2025, in Mbankomo, a major production area in the country’s Center region. According to Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, buyers should pay not less than CFA5,400 per kilogram during the campaign period.
The minister attributes this positive outlook mainly to strong demand from major chocolate makers for Cameroonian cocoa, valued for its unique flavor. These qualities led the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) to admit the country’s beans earlier this year into the select group of “fine cocoa” varieties.
Alongside this high demand, prices for local producers are also expected to be lifted by unfavorable weather in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top producer supplying about 40% of global cocoa. Industry players there anticipate a difficult 2025-2026 season. The Pan-African news agency Ecofin reports that Côte d’Ivoire’s meteorological authority, Sodexam, forecasts below-average rainfall in the southern cocoa belt from April to mid-November 2025, which could affect the harvest starting in October. Lower output and exports from Côte d’Ivoire are likely to push prices higher internationally and in producer countries like Cameroon, as traders compete for available beans.
In 2023-2024, global cocoa production fell by 11%, creating a supply deficit of 374,000 tons, compared to 74,000 tons the previous year. This shortfall was driven by poor output in Côte d’Ivoire, linked to climate challenges and aging plantations. As beans became scarce, Cameroon recorded record producer prices above CFA6,000 per kilogram in its growing regions.
Record Cocoa Output of 309,518 Tons in 2024–25 Season
In a statement released during the launching, the minister shared encouraging results for the previous season. The 2024–2025 cocoa campaign, which officially ended on July 15, recorded a historic high in marketed production. According to the minister, Cameroon’s cocoa output jumped from 266,710 tons in 2023–2024 to 309,518 tons in 2024–2025—an increase of 42,808 tons, or 13%.
This performance exceeded the forecast made in February 2025 by Fitch Solutions. The U.S.-based firm, owned by Fitch Ratings, had predicted a 6.7% increase in cocoa production, estimating the season’s output at around 280,000 tons.
In contrast, the final figure is more in line with the projection by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). In a March 2025 report on key economic, monetary, and financial indicators in the CEMAC zone (which includes Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic), BEAC estimated Cameroon’s cocoa output at 306,800 tons for the 2024–2025 season.
Beyond higher production, farmer prices also remained strong during the season. “This has reinforced the position of Cameroonian cocoa growers, now the best-paid in the world,” said Minister Mbarga Atangana.
Throughout the season, farmgate prices ranged between CFA3,210 and CFA5,400 per kilogram. Although lower than the CFA6,300 per kilogram peak seen in some regions during the 2023–2024 campaign, these prices still resulted in significant income. The minister reported that cocoa farmers earned a total of CFA1.2 trillion during the 2024–2025 season.
Unprecedented Cocoa processing boom
During the 2024-2025 cocoa season, Cameroon’s operating cocoa grinding facilities processed 109,431 tons of beans, it was disclosed. This is an increase of 23,759 tons compared with the 89,672 tons processed in the previous season, representing growth of 27.7%.
Commerce Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana announced the figure on August 7, 2025, in Mbankomo, in the Center region, during the launch of the 2025-2026 cocoa season. It is the first time Cameroon has recorded such a volume of domestic cocoa processing.
This rise in local grinding follows the installation of new bean processing units and the expansion of existing plants. In 2015, Société industrielle camerounaise des cacaos (SIC Cacaos), the local subsidiary of Swiss group Barry Callebaut, invested CFA5 billion in its Douala factory, increasing its capacity from 32,000 to 50,000 tons.
That expansion was seen as a response to the arrival of Neo Industry, a 32,000-ton-capacity processor launched in 2015 in Kékem, West region, by Cameroonian businessman Emmanuel Neossi. In 2020, Ivorian billionaire Koné Dossongui opened Atlantic Cocoa in the Kribi port industrial zone in the South, with an annual capacity of 48,000 tons.
On June 27, 2025, Atlantic Cocoa held the kick-off meeting for its expansion project in Kribi. With a planned investment of about CFA10 billion, the company aims to raise its capacity to 64,000 tons, highlighting the upward trend in cocoa processing in Cameroon in recent years.
Entering the market in the 2022-2023 season, local company Africa Processing, based in Mbankomo near Yaoundé, reports annual production of 8,000 tons of cocoa-derived products, generating CFA500 million in revenue.
Despite the strong results of the latest season, Cameroon remains far from its goal of processing 50% of its national cocoa production of 600,000 tons, a target set in the 2019 national cocoa-coffee sector development strategy. In 2024-2025, national cocoa output reached 309,518 tons, meaning processed volumes represented just over 33% of production.