• New report shows Cameroon runs surpluses with countries that buy its cocoa.
• Cocoa and its derivatives make up as much as 84% of imports in some markets.
• Authorities urge more local processing to capture greater value.

Despite a decade of broad trade deficits, Cameroon records surpluses with a small group of countries, according to the 2024 national competitiveness report. The document lists Italy, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Chad, Spain, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Central African Republic, Indonesia and Gabon as Cameroon’s top trading partners.

The analysis points to the dominant role of cocoa and cocoa derivatives in the surpluses Cameroon posts with the Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia, which rank among the country’s leading buyers of the crop. Cocoa and its byproducts account for 84% of Indonesia’s imports from Cameroon, 72% of the Netherlands’ imports and 68% of Malaysia’s, underscoring how much Cameroon’s export earnings rely on its flagship agricultural commodity.

Italy generated Cameroon’s largest bilateral trade surplus in 2024 at $267.4 million and also buys Cameroonian cocoa. But cocoa represents only 2% of Italy’s imports from Cameroon, making its contribution marginal despite the overall surplus.

Cameroon’s Competitiveness Committee is urging the country to expand its industrial base so it can keep more of the value created by the cocoa sector. “To reinforce and sustain these surpluses, it would be appropriate to further promote increased local processing of exported resources, notably through the development of first- and second-stage cocoa-processing industries,” the report says. “Such momentum would not only enable the capture of greater added value, but also broaden the export basket toward finished or semi-finished products, while strengthening national industrialization.”

BRM, Business in Cameroon