2023-10-16 22:03:55
In Cameroon, beer is a consumer product, the price of which is approved – and it is a sensitive subject. At the end of September, the association of alcohol producers in Cameroon (CAPA) decided to drastically reduce the rebate that retailers receive for each case of beer sold. CAPA was meant to compensate for the increase in production costs, but this measure angered bartenders.
From our correspondent in Douala,
It was a unilateral decision that was very poorly received by retailers. Worried about seeing their rebate lowered or even eliminated, the Barmen of Cameroon collective launched a call for a strike and threatened to close the bars until further notice. Valéry Ntendie is one of the initiators of this protest movement: “ We have not understood how producers can interfere with our savings. Instead of saving 245 CFA francs (0.38 euros), savings at the distributor level now experience a reduction, so they will only keep 122.5 CFA francs (0.19 euros). »
The Ministry of Commerce quickly intervened to request the cancellation of this measure and call on the different parties to conciliation. But this episode highlighted the difficulties of brewing companies which cite the increase in their costs and generalized inflation. Jean-Pierre Fotso, a distributor for SABC Cameroon, partly understands these arguments – but criticizes CAPA’s strategy: “ The brewing companies think that it is in the pockets of the smallest of us, that they must go and revise their margins, says the distributor. I think they did that, it was much more to move the lines. This is so that the government can accept that we change the price of beer for the final consumer. If we increase 25 FCFA (0.4 euros) per bottle of beer, I don’t think it will be fatal. »
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The bartenders’ rebate is contained in the structure of the price of beer, which has only increased four times in around ten years. For economist Louis-Marie Kakdeu, it is above all up to the State to encourage the production of inputs at the national level, so that brewing companies no longer have to import them at prohibitive prices: “ There have indeed been some government measures, but these measures have never been sufficient. Inputs have increased, and the price of energy, and therefore of natural gas, which allowed these companies to cover the electricity deficit in the country, has also increased by 16%.. »
Neither the brewing companies nor the Cameroonian Ministry of Commerce responded to RFI’s requests for interviews on this subject.
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