This figure was revealed in a note from the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.
In 2019, ten economic operators imported a total cargo of 803,505 tons of rice from the Cameroonian territory, reveals official correspondence from the Ministry of Commerce.
This is a “record volume, hitherto unmatched”, underlines the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, in a correspondence sent on July 6, 2020 to the president of the group of Cameroon rice importers.
These 2019 rice imports greatly exceed national demand, which is for example estimated at only 576,949 tons by the Ministry of Agriculture, on behalf of the current year 2020.
Assuming that national demand has not changed between 2019 and 2020, these official statistics reveal imports of nearly 367,266 tons more, considering that the national production of 140,710 tons projected in 2020 is actually consumed locally (a good part is exported to Nigeria).
The gap thus recorded reveals the persistence of networks for re-exporting rice intended for the Cameroonian market to neighboring countries, in which prices are considered more profitable by economic operators. This phenomenon had increased between 2014 and 2016, with the explosion of the rice import tax (110%) decided by the Nigerian authorities, in order to encourage local production.
Following this measure, and taking advantage of the rebate on rice in Cameroon since the hunger riots of February 2008 (tax restored in 2016), “Nigerian importers (preferred) to obtain supplies from Benin or Cameroon, and smuggle their goods into the country, ”revealed the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), the grouping of port operators in Nigeria.
As a reminder, rice is the most imported foodstuff by Cameroon. Officially, between 2015 and 2018, the country’s rice imports amounted to 652.6 billion FCFA, or on average 163 billion each year. To reverse this trend, the government has set up projects to encourage the production of this grain.
For the year 2020, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture announces a development program of 35,700 additional hectares of hydroagricultural perimeter, which will allow to put on the market at least 350,000 tons of milled rice. horizon 2023. However, this projection is still well below current national demand.