Seedlings shortage thwart coffee revival programme

The Emergency Programme for the Reviving Coffee Cultivation (Purc-café), officially launched in January 2014 in three productions zones of Cameroon (West, East and Coastal), after a catastrophic 2012-2013 coffee season (16,000 tonnes produced), did not yield the results expected for the post-implementation of the programme.

According to CICC which had requested 780,000 coffee plants for the programme, only 75,000 plants were available to Purc-café last year, representing less than 10% of the amount requested thus requiring the programme to be “restructured”.

Hence instead of creating 600 hectares of new coffee plantations per annum as planned, the CICC is now aiming for 300 hectares.

Despite the difficulties encountered by Purc-café’s, coffee production in Cameroon doubled in 2013-2014, reaching 32,800 tonnes compared to a little over 16,000 tonnes recorded in the 2012-2013 season.

Bolstered by these figures, the country is now aiming to achieve 40,000 tonnes by the close of the 2014-2015 season.