Gov't provides new options for cocoa sale

As a prelude to the new cocoa campaign which recently began at Bot-Makak, the Minister of Trade has just authorized the signing of agreements between producers, buyers and exporters. Until now, the sale of cocoa took place primarily in the context of periodic markets.

Now, a new option is available to producers. Producer organisations can sell their cocoa by signing agreements with buyers or exporters. This is one of the main innovations introduced by the texts signed Tuesday by the Minister of Trade and commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana(Mincommerce).

On the eve of each cocoa campaign, this new measure simply responded to a problem. If the practice authorized by the Mincommerce already had courses in agricultural circles, it caused problems insofar as it was not consecrated by the law governing the marketing of cocoa.

At the level of the producers, the measure is welcomed, but reservations are however expressed. "The convention is a tool and it finds its place when there is a problem. We must now go to producer organisations to assist in the control and the use of these texts", says André Bélébénié, president of the National Association of producers of cocoa and coffee from Cameroon.

Another innovation for this new 2014/2015 cocoa campaign, is "the prohibition put in-store purchase or export cocoa with a rate of 8% humidity, a provision that aims to improve the quality of the Cameroonian cocoa and enhance the incomes of the producers. It will especially encourage cocoa growers to dry beans very well.

But again, it would be necessary for its effective implementation that a follow-up is conducted and why not, offer to producers, sanctions can be taken against the offenders in these texts. "On the ground, producers are sometimes suffering from pressure from buyers who want to take cocoa when wet".

And sometimes, it undergoes flights from pods in the fields," says another producer.