Marketed cocoa production in Cameroon fell 19.9% to 247,914 metric tons in the 2025/26 season, the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC) reported on August 6. The drop reverses a record harvest and marks the lowest marketed volume in five seasons.
Key Facts
- Down 19.9% from last season, marketed cocoa output hit a five-year low of 247,914 tons.
- Exports sank 34.7% to 125,469 tons as buyers received far less cocoa than in 2024/25.
- Season-end stocks reached 40,447 tons, nearly triple the 13,947 tons held a year earlier.
The season ran from August 2025 through July 2026. It reversed an exceptional prior year. Cameroon had marketed 309,518 tons in 2024/25, a record that beat the country's 300,000-ton annual target.
The chart traces five seasons of marketed cocoa production, from 295,164 tons in 2021/22 to 247,914 tons in 2025/26. Output rose for three straight seasons before reaching a record 309,518 tons in 2024/25. The 2025/26 season fell back below every prior year in the series.
Prices Fall Despite Lower Cocoa Supply
In 2025/26, farmers received between 700 and 4,300 CFA francs per kilogram at the farmgate, versus a range of 3,210 to 5,400 CFA francs the season before.
FOB prices at the Port of Douala fell even further, dropping to a range of 1,520 to 3,110 CFA francs per kg. The previous season's range ran from 3,808 to 7,536 CFA francs, a decline of roughly 58% to 60%.
Market analysts tie the price slide to a second straight season of global oversupply, following three years of deficits that had pushed prices to record highs. Supply fell. Prices fell anyway.
Weather Behind Cameroon's Production Decline
ONCC's own release did not specify what drove the decline. Citing the regulator's data, Reuters linked the drop to adverse weather across West Africa. Intense heat and unseasonably dry, strong Harmattan winds left disease-weakened trees dropping their flowers before pods could develop.
Business in Cameroon reports that industry stakeholders point to longer-running structural pressures as well: aging plantations, declining soil fertility, and irregular rainfall that has disrupted flowering cycles.
The outlet also notes that Sodecao, the Cocoa Development Corporation, loses 40% to 50% of young seedlings annually in some of its nurseries. The losses slow efforts to renew aging orchards. The cause remains only partly confirmed.
Rising Stocks Signal Weaker 2026/27 Outlook
Total available cocoa for the season, including carryover stocks, reached 261,862 tons. Domestic processing slipped too, with volumes delivered to industrial and artisanal processors falling to 95,946 tons from 110,388 tons a season earlier.
Europe remained the dominant buyer of Cameroonian cocoa, taking 84.6% of exports. Asia absorbed 14.2%, and Africa took 1.1%.
Trade Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said further declines in bean supply were possible in 2026/27 because of ongoing adverse weather in West Africa. He pointed to weakening demand in the West too, tying it to "a noticeable trend amongst chocolate manufacturers towards using alternative fats to cocoa butter."
Cocoa overtook crude oil as Cameroon's top export earner in 2025, according to a National Institute of Statistics trade report cited by Business in Cameroon. It accounted for 26.3% of export revenue that year, against 22.9% for crude oil. A second straight season of falling volumes and prices puts that ranking at risk.
