• Boissons du Cameroun, a subsidiary of France’s Castel Group, plans to source 12,000 tons of locally produced sorghum in 2025, up from 8,000 tons in 2024 — a 50% increase.
• The company is executing a CFA200-billion investment plan, including three new factories in Yaoundé, Garoua, and Bafoussam.
• The strategy follows Castel’s 2023 acquisition of Guinness Cameroon from Diageo for over 300 billion CFA francs, expanding its control of the country’s beverage market.

Boissons du Cameroun, the Cameroonian subsidiary of French beverage group Castel, plans to boost its use of locally sourced raw materials by collecting 12,000 tons of domestic sorghum in 2025. The target marks a 50% rise from the 8,000 tons purchased in 2024.

The initiative aligns with Castel’s import-substitution strategy, reinforced since the group’s acquisition of Guinness Cameroon in 2023 for more than CFA300 billion. The transaction expanded Castel’s dominance in the national brewing sector and consolidated its supply chain strategy.

Guinness, previously a subsidiary of Britain’s Diageo, had already established partnerships with local sorghum growers. Castel has since extended these agreements, aiming to double national sorghum output used in beer and malt beverage production.

The group is also implementing a CFA200-billion investment plan, which includes constructing three new production facilities in Yaoundé, Garoua, and Bafoussam. These plants will strengthen industrial capacity and further stimulate demand for local crops such as sorghum and maize.

Boissons du Cameroun sources raw materials from farmers in Mayo-Tsanaga, Mayo-Kani, and Mayo-Danay in the Far North region, as well as Bénoué in the North. The company has developed agricultural partnerships to enhance productivity, increase rural incomes, and promote cereal sovereignty.

“The maize and sorghum sectors are at the heart of a sustainable and inclusive ecosystem. By promoting local production, we connect industry and agriculture for more sustainable growth,” said Stéphane Descazeaud, Managing Director of Boissons du Cameroun.

According to the company, these programs stimulate rural economies, create jobs, and reinforce Cameroon’s industrialization policy centered on domestic resources.

This article was initially published in French by Ludovic Amara for Business in Cameroon,

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum