Yesterday , cocoa beans loaded for export at the port of Douala were trading between CFA1,800 and CFA1,950 per kilogram, according to data from the Système d’information des filières, a price-monitoring platform run by the National Cocoa and Coffee Board.
The level represents a decline of about CFA200 to CFA300 compared with two weeks earlier, pushing export prices back below the symbolic CFA2,000-per-kilogram threshold at Cameroon’s main cocoa port.
The drop has filtered through to purchase prices in producing areas, at a time when growers had been expecting an improvement with the onset of the dry season, which began in December 2025. Industry participants say the dry season usually marks the end of discounts applied by buyers to farmgate prices. Those discounts are intended to offset higher logistics costs, particularly linked to poor road conditions during the rainy season.
The current price levels are testing government projections for the 2025–2026 cocoa season. Authorities have forecast average producer prices of between CFA3,200 and CFA5,400 per kilogram, well above current export prices.
In recent years, higher farmgate prices — reaching as much as CFA6,000 per kilogram during the 2022–2023 season — have increased cocoa’s weight in Cameroon’s export earnings. According to the National Statistics Institute, cocoa beans overtook hydrocarbons in the first quarter of 2025 to become the country’s leading source of export revenue, generating CFA500.3 billion, or 44.8% of total receipts.
BRM
