Single Origin Chocolate: Cameroon
Cameroon, located in Central Africa, is the World’s fourth largest cocoa producing country and the third largest in Africa. Cameroon is home to both the Forastero & Trinitario genotypes, however, only a small percent of the Trinitario beans are referred to as higher quality, or fine cacao. Due to a lack of sectoral support, the vast majority of their cocoa yield is ordinary cacao, and due to the lesser quality demand, cocoa farming is a less attractive occupation. Cameroon is also dealing with urbanization and commodity-driven deforestation, which resulted in a loss of 1.32 million hectares since 2000 (a 4.6% decrease in available land) furthering the divide. In the recent years, Cameroon is seeing higher interest from craft makers, and outside organizations are also stepping in to strengthen the cocoa quality and yield in an effort to revitalize the industry in the country. As of late, Cameroon is putting its own ambitious initiatives together and are focusing on producing 640,000 MT of cocoa per year by 2030.
Reference: IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative, “Roadmap to Deforestation-Free Cocoa in Cameroon” (2021)
Cameroon
With Cameroon’s initiatives to revitalize their cocoa quality and yield coming through in the past couple years, a Framework for Action was just passed in 2021 in which government, private sector, civil society organizations & stakeholders agreed to work jointly towards the conservation and restoration of forests, the sustainable production and marketing of cocoa and community engagement & social inclusion. This is a great step of many in creating sustainable & high-quality growing regions; Domori recently partnered with ScoopsCa cooperative of the Nkogekogo plantations and just launched their single origin Cameroon couverture blends.
