2023-04-16 22:03:09
Cameroon’s Minister of Commerce last week launched a digital platform to promote the ” made in Cameroon “. A watchword that aims both to develop local industries and to rebalance the country’s trade balance. In the food industry, the made in Cameroon has achieved some success, but much remains to be done.
Six years ago, Hippolyte Nozawo, a young agricultural engineer, embarked on an original industrial adventure. ” I found it abnormal that we are cocoa producers and that we do not have chocolate with the same qualities as chocolate [produit, NDLR] In Occident. »
With his friend Pierre Boyoguino, he created the Nohi chocolate factory in Douala, backed by a five-hectare cocoa plantation. The company is a success story of what is known as the made in Cameroon. However, the State has not had much to do with it, because Hippolyte Nozawo has not received any public aid or incentives. But he is pleased to see the emergence today of a discourse favorable to local products.
« We need to do a little more so that small businesses like mine can grow more, recruit more. Because local production is first and foremost regarding job creation, which will help reduce unemployment in Cameroon. »
Promote local value chains
The year 2020 and the world trade crisis has raised awareness among the Cameroonian authorities. Local value chains needed to be promoted. This is precisely the work of Alain Fonin, founder of Agribusiness investment management, a consulting firm specializing in agri-food sectors.
For him, the made in Cameroon in food does exist. “ There is in particular the oilseed sector in which we see a lot of industries that have set up, these are oil refineries. We have the soy sector, the corn sector “, he says. Then he continues: We also have progress in tea, coffee, cocoa, cassava, flour and derivative products. Progress can also be observed in the pineapple sector, with the production of fruit juices. And in pepper and chilli too. »
But if the “locally produced” label is starting to appear in shops, we are still far from the mark. Pasta, tomatoes, oil and flour, Cameroon imports in large quantities. For Alain Fonin, Cameroonian agribusiness needs to make its revolution. ” We cannot currently speak of the emergence of these value chains. We should encourage the creation of industrial plantations of local products and set up a contracting system to involve small growers in order to align with the needs of the food industry. »
Strengthen the financing of agricultural sectors
For Alain Fonin, an incantatory policy is not enough. We must look at the models developed by certain countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and strengthen the financing of agricultural sectors. Because banks do not always have the appropriate financing tools. ” It should be noted that the operating cycles of these sectors are very little known to the banking sector. In the processing sector, we do not have long-term loans. Loans over ten, fifteen or twenty years are almost non-existent. »
If the State launched in 2021 a guarantee fund for local SMEs, Alain Fonin proposes to go further, with the establishment of a sovereign fund which would invest directly in the agri-food sectors. THE made in Cameroonalso involves good local ideas.
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