• Africa Processing inaugurates its second cocoa-grinding plant in Cameroon as the country’s processed cocoa output surpasses 100,000 tonnes for the first time.
• Cameroon’s farm-gate cocoa price hit a record high of CFA6,300 per kg in the 2023–2024 season due to intense competition among grinders.
• The company reports CFA500 million in revenue and produces 8,000 tonnes of cocoa derivatives per year at its first plant.

Africa Processing, which specializes in cocoa-bean processing, inaugurated its second industrial unit on 28 November 2025 in Ngolambélé in the Dimako district of Cameroon’s East Region. The new site joins the existing plant in Mbankomo in the Centre Region. The company has not disclosed the production capacity of the facility or the size of the investment.

Chief Executive Lisette Claudia Tame Djame stated that “this is the only processing unit for Cameroonian cocoa beans that simultaneously offers products for industry [cocoa paste and butter] and products for direct consumption [chocolate]. We want to transform raw material where it is produced. We know the wealth of the East Region: around 12,000 tonnes of cocoa can be exploited each year. It is a vast market to capture and a gateway to the northern market.”

Africa Processing entered the cocoa-processing sector discreetly during the 2022–2023 season. The company now reports annual revenue of CFA500 million and annual production of 8,000 tonnes of cocoa derivatives at its Mbankomo plant. The Ngolambélé site aims to reinforce operational and financial performance.

Africa Processing becomes the fifth industrial-scale cocoa-bean grinder operating in Cameroon, alongside Sic Cacaos of Swiss group Barry Callebaut, Chococam of South Africa’s Tiger Brands, Atlantic Cocoa of Ivorian investor Kone Donsongui and Cameroonian firm Neo Industry.

The new plant strengthens the country’s processing ecosystem and supports Cameroon’s strategy to move up the value chain. Local cocoa processing crossed the symbolic threshold of 100,000 tonnes at the end of the 2024–2025 season. The multiplication of grinding facilities in recent years has intensified competition for bean purchases and has supported farm-gate prices.

As a result of this heightened competition—combined with favourable global market conditions—the price of cocoa beans in Cameroon reached a record CFA6,300 per kilogram during the 2023–2024 season, according to the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC).

This article was initially published in French by BRM (Business in Cameroun)

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum