According to the ASSOBACAM (Cameroon Banana Association), exported banana volume by the CDC (Cameroon Development Corporation) in August reached just 1,488 tons. This is the lowest volume recorded by the company since 2005. This is about 6 times less volume than the same time last year when it reached 8,560 tons. The volume is comparable to the volume exported by the much smaller company Boh Plantations (BPL), who managed to export 1,164 tons of bananas. Haut Penja (PHP) is the leader on the local market and is far ahead of the other companies, exporting a total volume of 12,261 tons over August 2018.
The decrease in exports began a couple of years ago. According to ASSOBACAM, the exports reached 279,493 tons in 2015 and plummeted by 30,000 tons in 2016 to 249,610 tons (PHP= 124,875 tons, CDC= 113,574 tons, BPL= 11,161 tons). ASSOBACAM says that the decrease is due to a decrease in production in Cameroon.
The decrease in production is an effect of the secessionist crisis shaking up the North West and South West regions. All the CDC's plantations are in the South West, so they are being directly impacted by the violent anglophone separatist demands. The crisis began in October 2016, and due to the escalating violence the authorities had to shut down most plantations, leading to a sudden decrease in production.