(EcoFinances) – The quantities of bananas exported during the first seven months of 2023 by the three local banana producers Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), and Boh Plantations Plc (BPL) recorded a significant drop, compared with the same period in 2022, according to data recently published by the Cameroon Banana Association (Assobacam).
Assobacam data show that between January and July 2023, these three companies exported 107,387 tons of bananas, compared with 123,294 tons during the same period last year. This represents a significant drop of 15,907 tons. The equivalent of 12.9% in relative value.
Of these three banana exporters, CDC (a public company and the 2nd largest employer after the State) is the only one to have recorded a net increase between January and July 2023, compared with 2022. The quantities of bananas exported by the latter reached 15,712 t during the first seven months of this year, compared with 12,000 t during the same period last year.
This is obviously not the case for PHP, whose exports fell by 17,606 tons between January and July this year, from 102,341 tons in 2022 (January-July) to 84,735 tons in 2023 (January-July). The same applies to Boh Plantations Plc, which exported less bananas between January and July 2023. The figure was 6940 tons, compared with 8953 tons during the period under review in 2022.
The reasons for the banana sector’s underperformance since the start of the year are still missing from the Assobacam report, but several analysts interviewed on the subject believe that several factors could well be behind the drop in exports between January and July 2023. High input costs on international markets coupled with the adverse effects of climate change (an increasingly long dry season, with peaks between January and March) explain, in part, this decline.
However, since the fiscal year 2023 has not yet ended, there is no reason to despair, since exports in the last five months of the year (August-December 2023) could well enable Cameroon to return to the good performances of previous years.
