Cameroon's Aug-Sep Cocoa Beans Intake for Crushing Down on Year

   By Emmanuel Tumanjong 

YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Cocoa beans bought for grinding in the first two months of the current season in Cameroon fell sharply from the same period a year earlier, industrial data showed Monday.

Statistics from the National Cocoa and Coffee Board showed that Sic Cacao, the Cameroon-based affiliate of Switzerland's Barry Callebaut AG (BARN.EB), was the lone buyer of cocoa for crushing in the first two months of the current season. The company's cocoa beans intake stood at 6,309 metric tons, compared with 11,526 tons it bought in August and September of the previous season.

Sic Cacao and Chocolaterie Confiserie du Cameroun, or Chococam, whose majority stake is owned by South Africa's Tiger Brands Ltd. (TBS.JO), are the only cocoa beans processors in the world's sixth largest cocoa producer. 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.

The cocoa season in Cameroon runs from August through July.

Farmers and traders said the fall in cocoa beans intake during the current season reflect low cocoa output during the same period this season due to prolonged dry weather that caused cocoa pods to wither. But they added it was also the start of the main crop output, which routinely sees a smaller harvest early in the season. Main crop output generally runs from September and March of each year.

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 228,911 tons, up from 220,000 tons produced in the previous season, according to industrial and government figures.

Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at [e-mail]

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