Cameroon: The government at war against the speculators

“The recent events in Russia may affect rice market, but they cannot influence the existing stocks. Any price developments matters only with speculation.

Those who do not respect the rules of the game will pay the price”, the Minister Mbarga Atangana stated.
This declaration responds to some increase on the prices of certain commodities. So the bag of 50 kilos of rice has risen in recent days from 15 500 to 16 500 CFA francs (U.S $ 31), an increase of 1000 francs (U.S $ 2). This evolution is without prejudice to the official prices, but trade Minister preaches vigilance, especially as the sector for wheat and its derived products has seen an incomprehensible increase also of a  1000 CFA for a 50 kilos of flour, while in some bakeries price for a baguette of bread rose from 125 ($ 0.25) to 150 francs ($ 0.3).

In their defence, millers have brandished the argument of fluxes in the stocks of about a month and a half, and they believe the collapse of the euro in recent months has led to disruption in international Stock exchange, increased from 115 Euros in March to 212.75 Euros at present.

But the Minister of trade, Mr. Mbarga Atangana, stated that there was no real impact being declared on the local market, but only that of the speculators, when he denounced the action of the bakers.
He added that “the commitments are broken, and there is no new element that leads to increase the price of the bread, because we remain below the price of the protocol”, he warned.
The branch has 10 mills in operation, producing 380 000 tons of flour from 450 000 tons of wheat imported, mainly from Europe and North American countries.
“We are over capacitated, and we are able to sell flour produced locally to the sub-region, and that is our real problem today” ,  a responsible of the supply chain declared.
He said “Chad, RCA and Equatorial Guinea have no mills, but we cannot export to these countries because the regulation does not consider the flour produced in Cameroon as a CEMAC product (Economic and Monetary community of Central Africa). We must break down this barrier. But unlike wheat, imported rice is diverted, in significant amounts, to the neighbouring countries, by fraudulent means. The smuggling creates a blur in the control and the traceability of the production. Another similar situation in the sugar market is also experienced, where large stocks are beyond the control of the officials. The only details known are confined to the domestic production of 80 000 tons per year, against 50 000 tons of import to meet local needs of 130 000 tons.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.