Loading ...Exclusive: Cameroon cocoa exporters, farmers flee crisis in Anglophone region
LONDON/DOUALA, Cameroon (Reuters) – Cocoa firms operating in Cameroon have moved staff out of the Anglophone region of the country and farmers are abandoning their crops in the area, as violence between separatists and security forces intensifies, exporters and farmers told Reuters.
Sources say the deepening conflict has started denting cocoa output and flow from the southwest, stripping the region of its mantle as Cameroon’s top cocoa-growing area.
Telcar Cocoa, Olam and Theobroma are among the firms that have moved the majority of their staff out of southwest Cameroon due to safety concerns, according to several sources with knowledge of the matter.
Some cocoa farmers have also abandoned their plantations and fled, driven out by a rise in kidnappings, extortion and fighting between insurgents and security forces.