• Cameroon launches $47.8M cattle processing hub in Douala
• Project includes slaughterhouse, meat plant, and 500 butcher shops
• Aims to boost beef supply, cut prices, and create 142,000 jobs
  

Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital, is set to host a new agro-industrial complex for cattle processing within three years. On October 1, 2025, Minister of Decentralization and Local Development Georges Elanga Obam broke ground on the Douala-Édéa inter-municipal agro-industrial hub, located at PK 17 in the city’s 3rd district.

The total cost of the complex has not been disclosed. The facility will include a slaughterhouse, meat processing unit, and blood treatment plant. It represents the first phase of a broader infrastructure program that will also add a one-stop compliance center, two slaughterhouses, two cold chain facilities, two meat processing units, and 500 butcher shops.

Other planned investments include two biogas waste treatment centers, secured transhumance parks, livestock markets, additional facilities, a youth training center, and a feed production plant. The first phase is valued at CFA26.7 billion ($47.8 million).

The second phase, estimated at CFA165 billion, will develop seven pasture and fattening zones covering 65,000 hectares, as well as an artificial insemination center for 100,000 cows in Édéa and other partner municipalities. Together, these facilities will form a modern regional cattle market with capacity for 20,000 head. Funding is provided by Brazil’s Tace Trading and other local and international partners.

The project, led by the city councils of Douala and Édéa and implemented by the Cameroon Beef Interprofessional Council (Cibovic), spans 110 hectares and is expected to create more than 142,000 direct and indirect jobs. The initiative comes amid soaring beef prices and a 35,869-ton drop in national beef production in 2024. The Douala-Édéa market aims to organize the livestock sector more effectively, ease shortages, and reduce meat prices across Cameroon.

Frédéric Nonos