Cameroon's banana association (ASSOBACAM) reported that in comparison with January 2015, when 26,366 tons of bananas were exported, January 2016 recorded a drop in dessert banana exports by 341 tons.
The downward trend is expected to continue throughout 2016, according to the Cameroonian Development Corporation (CDC); one of the three largest local exporters has announced the shelving of its activity on the off-standard banana, generally intended for the local market, which could affect its total production.
Apart from CDC, ASSOBACAM consists of the Société des Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP) and the Société des Plantations de Mbanga (SPM), which altogether produced 267,502 tons of bananas in 2014, over half of which is intended for export.
According to figures from the Ministry of Finance, the banana was the ninth export product and represented 1.5 percent of the total exports in 2014, when production had also increased by 7.3 percent.
