The central union of agricultural cooperatives of the West region has signed a convention with government which will enable coffee farmers to set up a factory in the region.

The cooperative union, commonly known by its French language abbreviation UCCAO, will invest 40million FCFA to upgrade its current coffee transformation unit into a modern factory.

The convention signed this February gives the union fiscal and customs privileges which fall in line with the 2013 law on promotion of private investments. The law provides exonerations ranging from five to ten years of installation of the enterprise to production phase.

The union, like the NWCA in the North West region, is one of the biggest coffee farmers’ cooperatives in Cameroon and equally produces one of the outstanding line of coffee products exported out of Cameroon. UCCAO coffee recently won the “Gourmet d’or” in an international coffee competition in Paris, France in 2015.

The union is made up of the Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs de la Menoua (CAPLAME-Dschang); Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs de Bamboutos (CAPLABAM-Mbouda); Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs du Noun (CAPLANOUN-Foumban); Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs de la Mifi, Haut-plateaux, Koung-Khi (CAPLAMI-Bafoussam); Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs du Haut-Nkam (CAPLAHN-Bafang); and the Coopérative Agricole des Planteurs du Ndé (CAPLANDE-Bangangté). It was created in 1958.

Cameroon is worlds’ fifth cocoa producer. During the launch of the cocoa season in August last year, Luc Magloire Mbarga, Minister of Trade said the country’s target is to export 600,000 tons of cocoa by 2020. Though majority of cocoa produced in Cameroon is exported to the European Union member countries, government is also taking measures to encourage local production.