ICCC to launch programme for local cocoa promotion

Early 2015, inter-professional Council of cocoa and coffee (ICCC) will launch its program called "Transfol", intended for the promotion of the local transformation of Cameroonian cocoa, the Executive Secretary of the CICC, Omer Gatien Malédy announced December 11, 2014, in Yaoundé,.

It was during the international conference which punctuated the 3rd edition of the international Festival of cocoa (Festicacao), placed this year under the theme: "What future beyond the bean?"

According to Mr. Malédy, Transfol aims to "integrate more producers in the value chain ', promoting the establishment of small processing units in the basins of the country's production. According to the Executive Secretary of the ICCC, the objective of this program, in the short term, is to put in place by the year 2015, the first unit of Transfol from processing.

To implement Transfol, the ICCC will benefit from the expertise of German Bear GmbH, which is its technical partner in this program. This company must build for Transfol recipients, small units with a minimum processing capacity of 500 tons per year, in order to transform the cocoa beans to liquor or cocoa butter.

The costs of these facilities will vary between 300,000 and 800,000 dollars (between 150 million and 400 million Cfa francs) depending on whether the units in question will be fully sophisticated or not.

Specifically, through the program Transfol, the ICCC will select producer organisations wishing to embark on the transformation of cocoa, on the basis of a candidature file. If the business plan of the organization is validated, the ICCC and other partners will take stakes in the capital of the transformation structure. The thus mounted plant will be technically accompanied over a period of 3 years, before the full transfer of the capital to the carrier peasant organization of the project.

According to the ICCC, which is thus transformed into venture capitalist, to encourage the transformation of Cameroonian cocoa, the period of 3 years from the project corresponds to the period from the end of the depreciation of the investments made.

As a reminder, Cameroon currently transforms barely 25% of its cocoa production, running on average around 200 000 tons for 5 years. By 2025, the country aims a production of 600,000 tons, of which half will be transformed locally.