This is what emerges from the Integrated Agropastoral and Fisheries Import-Substitution Plan (PIISAH 2024) which has just been published by the Cameroonian ministry in charge of the economy.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Cameroon spent 761.2 billion CFA francs to import 1,043,916 tonnes of frozen sea fish between 2018 and 2022. The peak having been reached in 2022 where the CEMAC's leading economy imported 241,933 tonnes of this consumer product at a cost of 202.6 billion CFA francs (+27.5%), or 4.1% of the country's overall imports, estimated this year at 4,911. 3 billion (+27%). A state of affairs which is justified by the country's inability to produce enough fish to meet local demand.
The INS informs on this subject that the annual production (230,000 tonnes in 2023) of this consumer product in Cameroon has remained very low in the face of increasingly growing demand estimated at 400,000 tonnes per year. Low production which should nevertheless increase, estimates the INS to reach 324,280 tonnes in 2025.
But it's not always enough. This is how Cameroon intends to reduce its level of dependence on imports by 15% by 2025, compared to 31% in 2021. This, with a view to reviving its trade balance which has remained in deficit for 5 years (545.5 billion CFA francs in the third quarter of 2023). In addition, the largest economy in CEMAC plans to achieve its production ambitions of 450,000 tonnes of local fish by 2030.
However, admits PIISAH, to achieve this, the implementation of significant structural reforms as well as the implementation of concrete and specific actions are essential. Among these reforms we can note, among others: “the revision of the legislative and regulatory texts governing the practice of aquaculture and fishing in Cameroon; the construction of conservation and storage infrastructures and the acquisition of transport infrastructures for fishery products (landing stage, warehouse and refrigerated trucks, opening up and development of maritime and continental production basins, structuring and support for the installation of fishing and aquaculture stakeholders in production basins”.
Pending the implementation of the said reforms contained in the document which is now akin to the compass serving as a recovery plan for the fish sector, Cameroonians continue to make do with sea bass, mackerel, sea bream, sardines, etc., sometimes frozen spoiled due to lack of being able to consume meat or even poultry beyond the reach of most budgets.
Julien Efila
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