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(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon, the economic hub of Central Africa, pursued a clear strategy between 2018 and 2025: modernizing infrastructure, expanding regional networks, and diversifying exports. During the same period, its trade deficit—long above 5% of GDP—narrowed steadily to about 4% in 2023–2024, opening the path toward a more balanced trajectory. Membership in CEMAC and the pilot phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) acted as catalysts, alongside the rollout of new port, road, and logistics facilities designed to absorb growing trade flows.
The deep-water port of Kribi, commissioned in March 2018, is at the heart of this momentum. By 2024, its container traffic reached 1.2 million TEUs, placing the terminal among the busiest in the Gulf of Guinea and offering landlocked Central African countries direct maritime access. Traditional exports followed mixed trends.
Bananas: After peaking at 190,000 tons in 2022, shipments dipped 2% year-on-year to 16,830 tons in April 2025. The four active plantations—PHP, Boh Plantations, Compagnie des Bananes de Mondoni, and Mbô Farms—nonetheless continue to supply most of their volumes to the European Union.
Cocoa: The 2025/2026 campaign opens on favorable prospects. Yields have grown by 6% annually since 2018, and the Atlantic Cocoa plant—operational since 2022 in the Kribi industrial zone—now processes 50,000 tons of beans into paste and butter, generating 25% more value than raw beans.
Timber: Log exports continued to fall following the 2024 increase in the exit tax to 75%. The objective is to ban log exports entirely by 2028 and concentrate local industry on panels, veneers, and furniture.
Regional integration advanced through cross-border infrastructure. The African Development Bank, whose Cameroon portfolio allocates 58.6% to transport and 21.2% to energy, is financing the Yaoundé–Bangui, Kribi–Mbounda (to Congo), and Ekok–Mamfe–Ikom (to Nigeria) roads. These corridors are cutting transit times and reducing logistics costs by an average of 15%.
The AfCFTA further brightens the outlook. According to Jean-Luc Mastaki, Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s Central Africa Office, urban demand for food products in the region will reach $150 billion by 2030. To meet this demand, the government has launched “agropoles” that combine logistics platforms, tax incentives, and sustainable technologies, with the first site covering 1,500 hectares in Nanga-Eboko.
The CEMAC composite commodity price index (ICCPB) fluctuated between -12% and +8% from 2022 to 2024, underlining the need for continued diversification. In line with this, 50 Cameroonian companies were supported in 2024 to take part in international trade fairs (SIAL Paris, Intra-African Trade Fair, Medpi), generating over $30 million in letters of intent.
Overall, the 2018–2025 period shows Cameroon’s external trade in transition: a shrinking structural deficit, upgraded infrastructure, rising cocoa processing, and expanded continental access. The foundations of a more open and better balanced economy are now in place.
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