• Cameroon banana exports stable despite BPL halting shipments since September 2025

• CDBM drives growth with export surges of 86% and 97.8% in Sept-Oct

• PHP rebounds in October; CDC’s gains limited by Anglophone crisis impact

Only three of the four operators active in Cameroon exported bananas in September and October 2025. According to the Banana Association (ASSOBACAM), Boh Plantations Plc (BPL), which has become the smallest local exporter following the rise of Compagnie des bananes de Mondoni (CDBM), ceased all international sales during the two-month period. Assobacam did not provide an explanation for BPL's withdrawal from the export data since September 2025.

Despite BPL’s exit, the country’s overall export volumes remained stable due to strong performance from the remaining three operators.

Export Performance

In September 2025, total Cameroonian banana shipments to the international market posted a marginal year-on-year decline of 0.74%, reaching 22,720 tons, down from 22,890 tons during the same period in 2024.

However, exports rebounded sharply in October 2025, hitting 20,062 tons. According to Assobacam figures, this volume represents a 51.5% increase, an absolute gain of 6,825 tons, over the 13,237 tons exported in October 2024.

This export growth over the period was primarily fueled by CDBM, the second subsidiary of France's Compagnie Fruitière group in Cameroon. The agro-industrial unit, which entered the market just over two years ago, recorded export increases of 86% in September and 97.8% in October 2025. CDBM’s international sales officially peaked at 2,925 tons and 2,475 tons in September and October 2025, respectively, up from 1,573 tons and 1,251 tons during the corresponding months in 2024.

Impact of the Anglophone Crisis

Export growth was more moderate at the state-owned Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), which continues to bear the impact of the Anglophone crisis ongoing in the country’s Northwest and Southwest regions since late 2016.

Assobacam reported that CDC’s banana sales increased by 39.1% and 63.2% in September and October 2025, respectively. These volumes reached 4,357 tons and 3,415 tons in 2025, compared to 3,124 tons and 2,092 tons in the same months of 2024.

Meanwhile, Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), the main subsidiary of Compagnie Fruitière and the market leader, saw contrasting results. After a 15.1% year-on-year drop in September 2025, with sales falling from 18,193 tons to 15,438 tons, PHP’s exports rebounded in October 2025 to 14,172 tons, revealing a 43.2% increase from 9,894 tons in October 2024.

The collective growth, though contrasted, among these three producers offset the disappearance of the fourth operator, stabilizing the country's revenue from this key cash crop, which is primarily destined for the European market.

Compagnie Fruitière de Marseille continues to dominate the sector. Through its two subsidiaries, PHP and CDBM, the French agro-industrial group accounts for between 70% and 80% of Cameroon’s annual banana exports. The multinational further solidifies its market footprint by providing technical assistance to all other local producers.

Brice R. Mbodiam, Business in Cameroon