Cameroon Seeks to Improve Cocoa Bean Quality After Declines
- Country has distributed dryers to help reduce moisture content
- Government to reward farmers with best-quality crops
Cocoa beans dry on a table in a village outside of Kumasi, Ghana.
Photographer: Jane Hahn/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Cameroon is taking steps to encourage farmers to grow better quality cocoa after a deterioration in last year’s crop resulted in lower prices for the country’s beans.
About 90 percent of Cameroon’s cocoa exports in the season through July were classed as Grade 2, the second of three quality ratings for beans, according to Trade Minister Luc Magloire Atangana Mbarga. That compared with 97 percent previously and meant that Cameroonian cocoa was about 200 CFA Francs ($0.37) per kilogram cheaper than international prices for the chocolate ingredient, he said.