Cameroon: chocolate-makers squeezed by high cocoa prices

On his plantation in Muyuka in south-west Cameroon, Chief Orok John is inspecting the young cocoa plants.

For several weeks now, he has been trying to find suitable treatments for the pod diseases that are weakening his crops.

He is one of a number of local producers who sell their crop in Nigeria rather than on the local market, but says competition between local and Nigerian buyers has forced the price up.

“We expect the government to pay more attention to our own cocoa factories to produce our local chocolate. Because if we have our own local factories, like Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast the prices of cocoa will increase further,” he says.

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