Cameroon, France to jointly create cocoa processing unit

The regional agricultural college (ARC) in the Cameroonian town of Ebolowa (South) and the agricultural school of earth in Nantes Atlantic (France) have started negotiations to collaborate with the view to set up a plant specialized in processing of cocoa beans into chocolate, butter and powder.

The project has just been presented to the government in Yaounde by the partnering entities.

This two-year twin project which is based on the principle of fair trade will consist of a pilot plant meant to be replicated in every country in the production areas.

A test of the processing of the cocoa beans has already been successfully carried out in Cameroon whose production of cocoa has soared to 232 530 tones in 2014-2015 from 209,905 tons the previous year.

The production target is set at 600,000 tons in 2020.