Cocoa sector: Re-launching through training
A cocoa tasting introductory session held in Yaounde on Friday, 9 February 2018. It was attended by the Cameroon Ministers of Trade, Mr. Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana and Employment and Vocational Training, Mr. Zacharie Perevet, many producers and other cocoa sector actors.
Apart from introducing attendees to cocoa tasting, the session consisted in giving the requisite tools to regular producers of quality cocoa beans in order to optimise the quality of their yields. This meeting equally aimed at enabling the representatives of some major local production areas to learn more about the characteristics of cocoa from the country's various production areas, to discover the aromas and organoleptic properties (taste, texture, smell and visual aspects) of cocoa from the centres of excellence and post-harvest treatment.
The long term objective of this operation is to increase the visibility of and, more importantly, add value to the Cameroon cocoa beans, which will have favourable spill-over effects in the international markets. The charm operation helped raise national and international public awareness of the exceptional properties of Cameroon's cocoa, particularly its capacity, flavour and so on.
At the end of this ceremony, the French master chocolate maker, Alexandre Bellion, was reassured and thinks that Cameroon can now sell its cocoa in foreign markets. Consequently, Cameroon cocoa beans will compete with cocoa beans from the largest production regions in the world during a competition to be held in Amsterdam in the Netherlands on 22 February 2018.
(Cameroon Tribune N 11536 of 14 febuary 2018)