Cameroon Cocoa Grinders Buy Less Cocoa At Start of 2013-2014 Season

    By Emmanuel Tumanjong 
 

YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Cameroon cocoa grinders bought less cocoa in the first month of the 2013-2014 season, compared with same period a year earlier, industry data show.

The cocoa season in Cameroon runs from August through July.

Sic Cacao, the Cameroon affiliate of Switzerland-based Barry Callebaut AG (BARN.EB) and Chococam, whose majority stakes are owned by South Africa's Tiger Brands Ltd. (TBS.JO) are the main cocoa beans processors in Cameroon.

The NCCB statistics indicate that Sic Cacao bought all the 2,252 tons of cocoa beans meant for crushing in August, down from 4,624 tons it bought and crushed in the same month of the previous season.

Chococam had no cocoa beans intake, although it had bought 458 tons of cocoa in the previous season.

Chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa cake and liquor produced by Sic Cacao is marketed mainly in Cameroon and its five neighboring countries in the Economic Community of Central African States.

Cocoa beans grindings in Cameroon during the just-ended 2012-2013 season stood at 32,019 tons, compared with 29,924 tons of cocoa beans processed in the previous season. Total cocoa production in Cameroon in the same period stood at 228,941 metric tons, up from 220,000 tons produced in the previous season, according to industrial and government statistics.

Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at [e-mail]

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