Cameroon’s richest woman gets late cocoa boost after disappointing season for Africa’s fourth-largest producer

Farmgate cocoa prices have risen above CFA2,000 ($3.46) per kilogram, with beans selling between CFA2,000 ($3.46) and CFA2,050 ($3.55) across major producing areas as of June 22, according to data from Cameroon’s National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC). The recovery comes less than a month before the 2025/26 cocoa season closes in mid-July.

For Telcar Cocoa, the trading giant Fotso has built into one of Cameroon’s largest cocoa exporter over more than three decades, the timing matters.

Higher farmgate prices typically encourage farmers to release more cocoa to licensed buyers before the season closes, increasing trading volumes for exporters.

While the latest rebound is unlikely to reverse what has been a weaker-than-expected campaign, it could improve cash flow and export activity heading into the next marketing season. The recovery, however, tells only part of the story.

At the start of the campaign, Cameroon expected another strong season after cocoa prices reached historic highs over the previous two years. Authorities projected producer prices of between CFA3,200 ($5.54) and CFA5,400 ($9.35) per kilogram.

Those expectations never materialised. Instead, prices remained well below projections for much of the season, leaving producers, traders and exporters with significantly lower returns than many had anticipated despite cocoa remaining one of the world’s best-performing commodities over the past two years.

Even after the latest recovery, farmgate prices remain dramatically below the CFA5,400 ($9.35) recorded during the 2024/25 campaign and the nearly CFA6,000 ($10.39) reached in parts of the country during the previous season, when severe crop shortages in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana sent global cocoa prices to record levels.

After two consecutive seasons of supply deficits, improving harvest expectations and weaker demand from chocolate manufacturers have eased pressure on international prices.

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) now expects the global cocoa market to return to surplus after last year’s deficit, signalling a gradual rebalancing of supply and demand.

That shift has filtered through to producing countries such as Cameroon, where domestic prices have cooled despite remaining historically attractive by longer-term standards.

For Fotso, whose business has become one of Central Africa’s largest agricultural trading companies, the latest rebound offers welcome breathing space rather than a return to the extraordinary profits generated during the global cocoa rally.

Telcar Cocoa has long dominated Cameroon’s export market, buying beans from thousands of farmers before supplying international commodity traders and chocolate manufacturers. As one of the country’s largest indigenous exporters, its fortunes often mirror the health of Cameroon’s cocoa industry.

The latest price movement also comes as Cameroon continues strengthening its position in the global cocoa market.

The country produced a record more than 300,000 metric tonnes of cocoa during the previous campaign, cementing its place as Africa’s fourth-largest cocoa producer behind Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. Cocoa has also overtaken crude oil as Cameroon’s biggest export by value, underscoring the crop’s growing importance to the country’s economy.

Despite the stronger production, the latest season has demonstrated that higher output does not always translate into higher returns.

Commodity markets remain heavily influenced by global supply expectations, speculative trading and demand from chocolate manufacturers, meaning fortunes can change rapidly even for the continent’s biggest exporters.

Whether the latest recovery extends into the new marketing season will largely depend on harvests in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together account for well over half of global cocoa production.

Another disappointing crop could tighten supplies and push prices higher again, while stronger harvests would likely keep downward pressure on prices.

For now, the rebound has come too late to rescue Cameroon’s 2025/26 cocoa season—but not too late to improve the outlook for the country’s largest cocoa exporter and the business empire of one of Africa’s most influential women in agribusiness.