(Business in Cameroon) – Last year, Cameroon fell to 13th place in the ranking of global banana exporters, according to a recent report from the Competitiveness Committee. This marks a drop of three positions from the previous year.
The document attributes this underperformance to a 10% drop in banana exports compared to the previous year; a decline that caused Cameroon to lose 0.5% of its share in the global banana market, falling from 2.3% in 2022 to just 1.8% in 2023.
Cameroonian bananas were mainly sold to Europe, the country’s traditional market. However, producers in this African country are outpaced by their South American competitors. The report notes that Cameroon accounted for nearly 3.5% of European banana imports in 2023, down from 4% in 2022.
In detail, Belgium received 69.3% of Cameroonian bananas in 2023, while the UK took 12.5%, and France 16.2%. Notably, France, which is the home country of Cameroon’s largest banana producer, Compagnie Fruitère de Marseille, has significant influence.
The French group, through its local subsidiaries, Société des Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP) and Compagnie des Bananes de Mondoni (CDBM), controls over 70% of Cameroon’s banana exports. Even other major producers like the state-owned CDC and private operator Boh Plantations Plc rely on technical support from the French giant.
