Controversy surrounding legal deadlines for rice shipments at Douala Port

According to Cameroonian Customs, merchandise brought to Douala Port should be processed and dispatched in ten days in order to prevent a pile-up at the port. Beyond this delay, the importers of the said merchandise will be hit with fines.

But, in order to facilitate the country’s supply of rice, the most popular staple in the country, the Cameroonian government has exceptionally allowed, since 2005, a 90-day delay for rice shipment processing at the Port of Douala due to the high volumes generally imported (approximately 700,000 tonnes per annum, according to the importers’ association).

However, in the last few weeks, shippers have become quite vocal, demanding the termination of this exceptional cargo processing deadline for rice based on the fact that this produce is clogging-up storage and slowing down the shippers’ work.

“Shippers offload a 10,000-tonne rice boat in thirty days and they are asking us, rice importers, to remove it in 11 days, which is technically impossible,” quipped Hamadama Mouctar, advisor to the president of the rice importers’ association, when quoted in the Cameroonian government’s daily publication. For Mr Mouctar, the solution to the overflow in port storage is to build more storage facilities.

“It isn’t up to shippers to build new storage areas,” retorts Lin Onana Ndoh, Secretary General of the Cameroon Shippers’ Association (GPAC), supporting the push for rice cargo to be processed in 11 days. “Cement has even higher volumes than rice, but its importers process their cargo in 3-4 days after off-loading. Our storage areas are not intended for long-term warehousing.”

Overall, according to the Cameroon General Directorate of Customs, several importers are accustomed to using the port as a storage area, preferring to pay the fines for the additional security the port provides instead of using the off-site warehouses which are usually more expensive than the port’s fines.