Employing controversial policy and incentivizing alternative flour sources.

The Central African government of Cameroon is pursuing an import substitution policy that would see the country expand the land under wheat cultivation while promoting the production and consumption of alternative baking flour sources.

The policy, launched in 2022, hopes to address existing trade imbalance attributed to increasing reliance on foreign markets to meet domestic demand for key food commodities such as wheat and rice.

When fully implemented, the plan would reduce the amount of wheat imported by Cameroon, which is more than 90% of the country’s national supply. It also promotes the use of cassava, sweet potatoes, and yams as alternative sources of bread flour. These measures go alongside the imposition of a high import tax for all foreign sourced cereals and other foods that can be locally produced.

Cameroon, a country of 28 million people, saw its cumulative imports bill increase from US$2.01 billion in 2016 to US$7.96 billion in 2021, with US$256 million spent on wheat imports.

Surging Imports

Importation of wheat by Cameroon has steadily surged since 2013 when 502,900 tons valued at US$97.4 million were imported. This imported volume rose to 966,400 tons valued at US$ 182.7 million in 2021. The imported wheat volumes declined slightly in 2022 to 920,400 tons but at a higher value of US$260.7 million due to global wheat shortages triggered by the blockade of the Black Sea by Russia after it invaded Ukraine, another key global wheat producer.

Disruption of the global wheat supply due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict triggered acute shortages in Cameroon with flour millers and bakers opting to scale down production to cut on costs. The subsequent skyrocketing prices of bread triggered countrywide protests in the country, driving the push for sustainable alternatives. Wheat flour remains Cameroonian people’s staple food consumed in various forms, such as bread, pasta, doughnuts and pastries, and biscuits.

Cameroon’s current wheat production is not known. The government said in its 2024-26 Intergrated Agro-Pastoral and Fisheries Import Substitution Plan that a “lack of statistical data on local wheat production [presents] a significant difficulty in assessing production performance.”

However, the government report projects by 2025 that Cameroon’s wheat production would be approximately 2,856 tons of wheat flour against an annual consumption demand of nearly 900,000 tons.

“National wheat supply is almost non-existent, even though Cameroon has the potential to produce wheat and has favorable agro-climatic conditions,” it added.

To address this huge wheat supply deficit, Cameroon, a country with a wheat consumption per capita of 33kgs annually, has for decades relied on Russia and Ukraine for up to 50% of its total supply.

Government reports indicate Cameroon’s wheat imports increased from 681,800 tonnes in 2017 to 966,400 tonnes in 2021, equivalent to a 42% increase. Cameroon spent an estimated US$ 1.4 billion on wheat imports from 2017 to 2021, hence exacerbating the country’s trade deficit.

Alternatives to Wheat Flour

The government is pursuing a parallel initiative to increase both the production and supply of alternative crops and flour types specifically derived from cassava, potato, and yams crops.

“Local flours, particularly cassava and potato flour, can replace wheat flour,” the government report says.

“It would be wise to consider measures to promote local flours as substitutes for wheat flour, in order to curb the constant rise in quantities and import prices,” it stated.

Some of the measures the government is proposing in the drive to ramp up alternatives to wheat flour include:

• Promoting local flour production units

• Identifying and supporting local flour producer organizations.

• Strengthening the technical, organizational, and managerial capacities of actors involved.

• Organizing campaigns to raise awareness among wheat flour users about the need to incorporate local flours into their products.

• Organizing fairs to promote local products made with local flours.

The government has previously utilized direct subsidies, tax incentives, and various tax and customs-related measures to encourage domestic production and transition away from raw material production according to past reports.

Controversy

In the short term, large-scale wheat producers are expected to develop at least 1,000 hectares of land in the Central Plain as part of the wider, controversial Central Plain Development Project, an initiative to put 400,000 hectares of land, three times the size of the country’s capital, Younde. The plan has been criticized by rights groups such as Greenpeace.

“It is a potential threat to the rights of the communities living on the land thus demarcated. Indeed, populations will certainly be forced to leave their homes, customary lands and their terroirs of activity to benefit from the implementation of this agricultural project,” stated Greenpeace.

Replacing wheat flour with alternatives such as cassava, sweet potato and yam flours would require Cameroon to expand acreage under these crops.

Under the Central Plain Development Project, the government plans to develop 10,000 hectares of land for cassava, potatoes, and yams.

For the period between 2023 and 2025, Cameroon expects to produce an estimated 195,750 tons of cassava flour and 24,525 tons of potato flour.

“Today, over 900,000 tonnes of wheat is imported to product bread whereas if we calculate it better, we can bring in 30% of cassava flour,” said Raoul Jaouna, head of mission for the European Union Competitiveness Support Facility for Cameroon (DACC).

“We will have 270,000 tonnes of cassava flour that will come in to replace wheat, this will help save much,” Jaouna said in a previous statement.

But even with the planned ramping up of alternatives to wheat flour, Cameroon is eyeing the development of new lands for wheat cultivation in the Adamawa, northwest, west, far north, central, south, east, and north regions that have a potential output of 225,000 tons.

Currently, Cameroon relies on the northwest region for the production of an estimated 900 tons, far below its potential of 50,000 tons.

However, for Cameroon to successfully achieve its wheat production targets and increase consumption of alternative flour sources, both the public and private sector have to address some of the challenges identified in the government’s 2024-2026 Intergrated Agro-Pastoral and Fisheries Import Substitution Plan, such as a lack of high-yielding planting material, limited access to suitable farm land, scarcity, and unskilled labor in rural areas, difficult access to agricultural inputs, producers’ poor access to finance, and the rudimentary and obsolete nature of production equipment, especially for family farms.

Shem Oirere is a freelance writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. He can be reached at shem@shemoirere.com, +254-722-167-733.