Mbanga plantation society on the edge of bankruptcy

A section of 3,000 employees in the Mbanga plantation company (SPM), an agroindustrial unit which produces banana in the Department of Mungo, Littoral region, demonstrated on September 4, 2014 in front of the the premises housing the branch of the company in Douala. These employees were demanding payment of 15 months of wage arrears.

Indeed, for 9 months, this agro-industrial company is almost at a standstill, only administrative personnel continued to work two or three days a week, indicated internal sources at the company. The difficulties faced by this company eventually led to discontinuation of the production and exports of bananas.

The agro-industrial unit was criticized by civil society, populations and local elites such as Lapiro de Mbanga, the renowned artiste/musician. This company is generally charged with exploitation of workers and especially not paying the taxes owed to the State, through preferential treatment with some local authorities.

Charges levelled against them were borne by Paul Eric Kingué, former Mayor of Njombe-Penja, (localities in which the MPS also operate in banana production) currently imprisoned for misappropriation of public funds. "All companies that produce bananas in the localities of Njombe-Penja realize 100 billion FCFA of turnover annually, employ between 8,000 and 10,000 people whose wages do not exceed 200 million Cfa francs per year", he denounced.

After these denunciations and a documentary aired last year by France 2, on slavery-like working conditions in the plantations of the Mungo, a manager of the Chamber of commerce France-Cameroon announced during a meeting organized by the Committee on competitiveness in Yaoundé, CSR that bananas from the MPs had boycotted the market of Rungis in France, one of the largest markets for fruit in Europe. Information that had, however, not been confirmed by the Rungis press relations manager.