Lukong Pius Nyuylime
28 April 2008
Cement, rice, fish, wheat and gas have been of particular concern.
Cement
Cameroonians are unable to understanding what is really happening with this product of high necessity. The lone cement company, "cimenterie du Cameroun", CIMENCAM, has reached its maximum production capacity and is unable to meet growing demand from the whole of the Central African sub region. Present supply stands at between one and 1.2 million tons a year while demand in the CEMAC sub-region is about 5 million tons a year.
The president of the Cameroon Consumption League, Delor Magellan Kamseu Kamgaing, has deplored CIMENCAM's disrespect of the circular of the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, calling on the company to prioritise national demand.
A bag of a 50-kilogram cement today sells in the black market at between CFA 7 and 8,000 instead of 4,960 CFA Francs. Following the acute shortage, speculators have been playing hide and seek with the administration to sell higher. Several tons have been tracked down and sold in the open market at official rate.
Already, pressure has started coming in from other countries of the CEMAC sub-region. Last week, the Minister Delegate at the Central African Republic's Ministry of Trade, Industry, Small and Medium -sized Enterprises in charge of the One Stop Shop came knocking at the Cameroon's doors to allow CIMENCAM export more cement to the country. "75 percent of the cement used in the Central African Republic comes from Cameroon", he said.
Rice
Importation figures for rice in 2006 and 2007 speak for themselves. According to the National Institute of Statistics, Cameroon imported 470,947 metric tons of rice in 2007 against 429,864 metric tons in 2006 indicating an increase of 9.6 per cent. This equaled spending CFA 87 billion in 2007 on the import up from CFA 71 billion the year before. Annual production has stagnated at about 60,000 metric tons during the past two years against domestic demand estimated at between 85 and 90,000 tons annually.
Rice is one of the country's palatable dishes and is even tipped to be the most popular dish in Cameroon today.
The trouble with the crop is the refusal by the main supplying country such as China to continue selling to Cameroon and many other countries. This means that Cameroon must step up local production by reviving almost abandoned rice production projects such as Ndop Rice, SEMRY, Tonga and Santchou. According to the new measures by the Minister of Trade, a transparent glass of rice is sold at CFA 50. Unfortunately, few traders have so far respected that.
Fish
Fish remains scarce in the market in spite of the increase in the importation of frozen fish. According to the National Institute of Statistics, Cameroon imported 138,536 metric tons of rice in 2007 up from 100,946 metric tons in 2006, spending an additional amount of CFA 20 billion. In effect, Cameroon spent CFA 59 billion in 2007 on imported frozen sea fish up from CFA 39 billion.
In spite of the Presidential decree suspending customs duties on fish and other primary products, prices have remained excessively high.
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