Cameroon’s Cocoa Exports Increased by 8.2% in Week to May 16

Cocoa shipments from Cameroon’s main port of Douala climbed 8.2 percent in the week to May 16, according to statistics from the harbor.

Exports totalled 460 metric tons, compared with 425 tons a week earlier, according to information sent by SMS from the port today. It didn’t provide reasons for the increase.

The average export price declined to 1,299 CFA francs ($2.82) per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from 1,310 francs a week earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations using rates published by the country’s Cocoa and Coffee Board.

Prices climbed to 1,215 francs from 1,210 francs in the South West, one of Cameroon’s main production areas, Abong Abraham, president of the Ekona Farmers’ Cooperative, said in a phone interview today.

Farmers sold the beans at 1,210 francs in the Littoral, and in the Center and at 1,200 CFA in the South production zone, according to information e-mailed from the Cocoa and Coffee Information Relay Centers in Bafia, Bertoua, Nkongsamba and Ebolowa.

Cameroon, the world’s fifth-biggest producer of the crop after Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria, produced 198,000 tons of the chocolate ingredients in the 2009-10 season, compared with 205,000 tons a year earlier, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board said in August.

The cocoa season in the Central African nation runs from Aug. 1 through July 31.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-18/cameroon-s-cocoa-exports-increased-by-8-2-in-week-to-may-16.html)