Cameroon opens 2026-2027 cocoa campaign and points exporters toward Nigeria

Cameroon opened its 2026-2027 cocoa campaign in Yaoundé on 6 August, in a market environment markedly different from the previous two seasons. World prices are correcting after the records set in 2023 and 2024, and the Ministry of Trade has called the shift a “major cycle reversal”, according to newsducamer.com. The ministry is now presenting neighbouring Nigeria as a new outlet for Cameroonian beans and is searching for fresh growth channels for the sector.

The campaign opens in the wake of the Abuja summit, where Africa’s four leading producers — Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria — set out a common ambition to process more beans on the continent and capture a larger share of the added value. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone supply close to 60% of world output, and together with Cameroon and Nigeria they form a group capable of durably influencing the international market. Africa nevertheless still captures only a small share of the revenue generated by a global chocolate industry valued at more than $100 billion a year. The African Continental Free Trade Area and its 1.4 billion consumers are presented as the channel through which locally processed goods could gradually be absorbed.

Why Nigeria

Nigeria combines a population of nearly 245 million with annual processing capacity estimated at 150,000 tonnes, which makes it a regional market of a different order for Cameroonian exporters. The ministry’s stated objective is to reduce dependence on European markets while developing regional trade.

Local processing is the other half of the strategy

Figures from the Office national du cacao et du café (ONCC) show local grinding rising by almost 28% in a single campaign, to 109,431 tonnes. The ministry puts installed industrial capacity at around 250,000 tonnes, equivalent to 70-80% of the volumes produced in recent years. It links that build-out directly to farmgate prices: “the new element, which could be decisive for improving the producer price, is the scaling up of local processing,” the ministry statement said.

• Marketed production: a record 309,518 tonnes in the 2024-2025 campaign, which ended on 15 July 2025
• Exports: 192,013 tonnes, against 185,613 tonnes in the previous campaign
• Local processing: 109,431 tonnes, up nearly 28%
• Officially recorded sales to Nigeria: 2,100 tonnes, making it the largest African buyer of Cameroonian cocoa

Flows that already exist, mostly informally

Surveys by the Institut national de la statistique show Nigerian demand accounting for 64.8 billion FCFA of Cameroon’s informal exports in 2024, or 30.8% of the total. Cocoa beans dominate those flows at 41.4 billion FCFA — close to two thirds of the receipts generated by trade with Nigeria — and rose 145.6% in a single year.

The scale of unrecorded trade has already prompted enforcement. During the 2022-2023 campaign the authorities put losses from fraudulent cocoa exports to Nigeria at close to 70 billion FCFA; Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana banned bean exports to the neighbouring country and then introduced reinforced controls on land, sea and air departures. The 2,100 tonnes officially bought by Nigeria in 2024-2025 remain modest against total exports of 192,013 tonnes, but mark the start of formalisation.

Announcements ahead of contracts

At this stage no commercial contract has been announced between Nigerian processors and Cameroonian operators, no purchase commitment has been communicated, no export target has been set and no ramp-up timetable presented. Execution will depend on transport infrastructure, simplified customs procedures, compliance with Nigerian regulatory requirements and competition from other producers in the sub-region.

The ONCC is continuing to reorganise the sector. On 13 January 2026 its director general, Michael Ndoping, brought together exporters, Customs and administrative authorities to improve coordination of trade with Nigeria, alongside the implementation of new texts aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area. The office is also accelerating the rollout of a national unified cocoa traceability system designed to meet new international requirements, notably European ones, while securing exports to neighbouring markets.