In two decades, coffee production in Paul Biya’s country has fallen by 130,000 tonnes.

Cameroon’s annual production has fallen from 150,000 tonnes in the 1980s to 20,000 tonnes today. The reason for this has been the abandonment of this crop in favour of cash crops, which have been the mainstay of the country’s economy. To boost production, the government has opted for the Coffee Sector Revitalisation Project, which aims to reach 160,000 tonnes per year.

“Today, coffee has lost its value. The fall in the price per kilo has discouraged the farmers. So, after a few hopeful years with no end in sight, they have decided to turn the land they used to grow coffee on into fields of maize, beans and other agricultural products,”  says Yves Ngouné, farmer in the West region.

According to Elisabeth Peuefo, a member of the “Plateforme nationale des organisations professionnelles agro-sylvo-pastorale et halieutiques du Cameroun” (Planopac), the death of the coffee sector is linked to a number of scourges. These include: the ageing of coffee growers, the poor perception of the sector among young people due to its long maturation period, insufficient financial resources and the lack of logistical resources for transport from production areas to sales outlets in order to improve profit margins.