Dry season weighs on Cameroon banana exports

Plantations du Haut Penja (PHP), Cameroon’s largest banana producer, exported 9,207 tons of bananas in May 2026, according to figures from the Cameroon Banana Association (Assobacam).

The result represents the company’s lowest monthly export volume since the start of the year. PHP opened 2026 with exports of 20,037 tons in January. Volumes then declined to more than 17,000 tons in both February and March before falling to 11,687 tons in April.

The downward trend continued in May, bringing exports to their lowest level of 2026. The reduction in export volumes coincides with the peak of Cameroon’s dry season, a period that is typically associated with lower agricultural output.

PHP is the largest Cameroonian subsidiary of France-based Compagnie Fruitière de Marseille. Together with Compagnie des Bananes de Mondoni (CDBM), the group’s second subsidiary in Cameroon, which exported 1,975 tons in May 2026, Compagnie Fruitière accounts for around 80 per cent of the country’s banana market.

Bananas remain one of Cameroon’s main sources of foreign exchange earnings. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), banana exports generated CFA67.7 billion (US$116 million) in revenue in 2025, an increase of 84.7 per cent compared with the previous year.

Source: Business In Cameroon