Over the past decade, the Cameroonian food industry welcomed about
1,800 new companies as the number leapt from 764 to 2,564 in the 10-year period. Figures were unveiled in a presentation by Cameroon’s Minister of Industry, Gabriel Dodo Ndocke, in Yaoundé.
Between 2009 and 2016, the industrial processing of items such as palm oil, cocoa, tea and sugar developed. Today, the processing of agricultural products represents 28% of the secondary sector’s added value, excluding oil, in Cameroon.
However, Cameroon’s industrial fabric remains very unbalanced as 3% of companies produce more than 95% of the added value.
In addressing barriers to the development of the agricultural processing industry, the Minister of Industry mentioned, among other things, production machinery constraints, inadequacy of transport infrastructure, difficulties in accessing financing and production factors as well as the unavailability of raw materials in some cases.
Solutions, according to him, lie in the institutional structuring, which requires that government bodies, the private sector and development partners join forces.