(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s wood processing industry experienced a 12.5% year-over-year increase in production costs in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Industrial Producer Price Index (IPPI) by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The INS highlighted that this “sharp increase” is nearly double the previous quarter’s rise of 6.2% year-over-year. Quarterly, these prices grew by 6.1%.
The INS did not provide specific reasons for this significant rise. However, it may be linked to the increase in fuel prices at the pump in Cameroon, which took effect on February 3, 2024. Diesel, widely used as a backup energy source by many industrial units due to frequent power outages, saw its price per liter rise for the second time in two years in February, likely impacting the production costs for wood processors.
More broadly, the IPPI revealed that factory gate prices in Cameroon’s industrial sector increased by 0.9% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024. This overall rise is mainly driven by the wood processing sector, up 12.5%, and the textile industry, up 9%.
