The platform of local flour producers in Cameroon aims to produce around 5 million tonnes of quality products by 2030, reports Cameroon Tribune.

This will permit Cameroon to get rid of massive imports of wheat, whose flour is the most used in the country, and whose costs are currently suffering from the war between Russia and Ukraine, which are the first world suppliers. For the year 2020 alone, for example, according to a study by the Bureau de mise à niveau des entreprises, Cameroon imported 830,000 tonnes of wheat, worth 150 billion FCFA.

The ambitions of the new platform of local flour producers leave one wondering. Indeed, Cameroon has more or less significant production deficits in most of the crops on which these producers intend to rely to guarantee such production. These include maize, sorghum, sweet potato, cassava and plantain.

In addition, reaching such a level of local flour production in less than 10 years implies colossal investments in starch processing, at a time when the existing flour mills in the country are accused of slowing down the application of the measure imposing a quota of local flours in the manufacture of bread, which is certainly the most consumed flour-based product in the country.