Lukong Pius Nyuylime
29 October 2009
Experts have three days in Yaounde to set the base for immediate take-off.
The information vacuum cocoa and coffee farmers in particular and commodity producers in general have been facing to get their produce marketed at reasonable prices may soon be filled following the announcement of the imminent creation of a Commodity Exchange for the Central African sub-region.
Experts, among whom are commodity producers, cooperatives, processors, traders, distributors and purchasers, began meeting at the Yaounde Mont Febe hotel yesterday in a three-day workshop to set the base for the effective takeoff of a structure that would promote commodity marketing activities in the sub region.
The commodity Exchange to be located in Cameroon, according to Nkoulou Ada Inspector General N°1 of the Ministry of Trade who presided at the opening ceremony, will serve as a base to "structurally improve basic commodities and integrate small scale producers within the supply chain." The Commodity Exchange, once set up, will make it possible the marketing of basic commodities to be concentrated in one place, the government official said. He stated that this would certainly lead to a reduction in the cost of transaction and competitiveness in the products.
From every indication, the first commodities to benefit from the Exchange will be cocoa and coffee. According to Michael Ndoping, General Manager of the National Cocoa and coffee Board, the Commodity Exchange will serve as a transparent platform for "regulating, financing, marketing and risk management" to increase production.
Considering the importance of the structure to be set up, stakeholders who are meeting in Yaounde to study, draw up, and put in place the said Exchange will work diligently within the spirit of the initiators of the project, the European Commission and the All ACP Agricultural Commodities Programmes, financiers of the project. Participants are equally working against the backdrop of the challenges of making the basic commodity sector, the major victim of the Global Economic Crisis, bounce back to activity. About 55 per cent of export revenues for Cameroon comes from basic product which according the Inspector General N° contribute about 45 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product.
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