(Business in Cameroon) – In October 2024, the Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), one of the two subsidiaries of the Compagnie Fruitère de Marseille in Cameroon, saw its banana exports fall by 39%. According to the Banana Producers Association of Cameroon (Assobacam), PHP shipped only 9,894 tons of bananas in October 2024, down from 16,252 tons in the same month of 2023, marking a year-on-year drop of 6,358 tons.
This was the worst performance by PHP since the start of 2024. The last time the company faced a similar decline was in May 2023, when exports totaled 9,761 tons. However, the volumes in October 2024 and May 2023 are still much higher than the 8,714 tons exported in July 2023. Even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, PHP did not experience such a sharp decline.
As usual, PHP’s poor performance in October 2024 had a broader impact on Cameroon’s overall banana exports. According to Assobacam, total banana exports from Cameroon fell to 13,898 tons in October 2024, a decrease of 5,635 tons (-28.9%) compared to 19,533 tons exported in October 2023.
However, PHP wasn’t the only producer to contribute to the drop in banana exports in October 2024. The state-owned agro-industrial company, CDC, exported just 2,092 tons of bananas in the period, marking a 19% decline (-494 tons) compared to 2,586 tons in October 2023.
Boh Plantations Plc, another banana producer, also experienced a 25% drop in its exports. The company shipped 661 tons of bananas in October 2024, down from 883 tons in October 2023, a reduction of 222 tons.
The only company to see an increase in exports during this period was the Compagnie des Bananes de Mondoni (CDBM), the second subsidiary of the Compagnie Fruitère de Marseille in Cameroon. Since entering the market in June 2023, CDBM, which now competes with Boh Plantations for the third spot in Cameroon’s banana market, exported 1,251 tons of bananas in October 2024, compared to 695 tons in October 2023, representing an 80% increase.
Bananas are a key export product for Cameroon. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), in 2023, the country exported CFA42.9 billion worth of bananas to the G7 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
To increase revenue from banana exports, the country aims to raise its annual banana production to 500,000 tons by 2030, up from the current range of 210,000 to 240,000 tons. This goal is part of Cameroon’s National Development Strategy for 2030 (SND 20-30).
