Local processing of cocoa beans
Cameroon now has a cocoa processing plant. The factory dubbed Neo Industry was inaugurated in Kekem on 26 April 2019. The foundation stone of 54 billion CFA F project was laid in June 2016. NEO Industry will process 32,000 tonnes of cocoa beans a year into 26,000 tonnes of finished products including cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder. The company will thus generate added value that will help increase Cameroon’s Gross Domestic Product and improve her balance of payments.
In addition to the tax and customs incentives offered by the Cameroonian State, it also benefited from direct public financing of XAF1.2 billion, as part of the Agropoles project, implemented by the economy ministry.
NEO industry, the first of its kind in the country is fully equipped by the German company Buhler and considered to be the world’s top equipment manufacturer for chocolate industry. It is expected to create roughly 825 indirect jobs. The plant is perfectly in line with Government industrialisation policy and sector players who are working to increase local processing. The objective is to locally process 50% of production by 2020.
(Summary of an article published in Cameroon Tribune No.11 834 of 29 April 2019)