Stakeholders met in Yaounde last Thursday to prepare for field visits.

Cocoa organisations such as the National Cocoa and Coffee Board and the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Council have been urged to intensify their follow up of cocoa activities on the field.

Meeting in Yaounde last Thursday, October 02, actors in the cocoa sector, representatives of farmer organisations inclusive, resolved to strictly monitor the activities of the newly created local market centres to ensure that they are not penetrated and contaminated by non professionals. The Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana who presided over the occasion stated inter alia that it was necessary for professional organisations and government institutions to constantly go down to the field and monitor local market operations to ensure that the cocoa that finally leaves for export respects set norms.

With the determination to cart away with impostors in the sector, some centres were selected for visiting by the control team. In very stern language, Minister Mbarga Atangana castigated some officials whom he said are part of the whole game. Many who are charged with fighting illegal activity in the cocoa sector live on it. He accused them of letting go cocoa beans they know have been produced with outright disrespect of standards.

This particular point was buttressed by some professionals who pointed out particular areas where non-professionals thrive in their numbers. A case in point is the Mbam and Inoubou. A case of poor beans en route for the market was cited in Obala where a truck transporting cocoa was seen followed by bees. One of the professionals, Ndongo Essomba, condemned the non-respect of the law and quoted the case of Lekie Division in the Centre province where cocoa is bought with the use of motor cycles contrary to the trucks as prescribed by the law.

To the Official of the Cocoa and Coffee board, Michael Ndoping, it is important to know that agriculture is a profession and cocoa production an art. In this light, he said his organisation has integrated in the Cocoa and Coffee fund (FODECC) a training programme with special focus on youths. The president of the Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Council, Ngwe Appollinare, on his part said his organisation would be proposing as from January a professional code of ethics in a bid to enhance professionalism.