The report on the Cameroonian economy in 2023 produced by the General Directorate of Economy and Investments of the Ministry of Economy, provides detailed indicators of the imports made by Cameroon last year. First, as in previous years, they are more important than exports, which have inevitably led the country to a trade deficit. It also decreased by 589 billion FCFA to stand at -2,017 billion FCFA. One of the major contributors to this deficit is the increase in the importation of goods. Their bill stood at 5,005.8 billion FCFA in 2023 compared to 4,911 billion FCFA, an increase of 1.9% year on year.
This increase is supported by the year-on-year growth of certain key products. These include laundry soap. According to data in the aforementioned report, imports for these products reached 16.3 billion FCFA in 2023, an improvement of 29.1% year on year.
However, if Cameroon is a major importer of laundry soap (soap in bars and in detergent form), it is still a major exporter of household soap in bars. At least this is what the aforementioned report shows, which specifies that these manufactured products have captured large market shares in sub-Saharan Africa. That is to say an increase of 59.2% in volume and 91.6% in export value. In more detail, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) indicates that soap factories operating in Cameroon sold 66,591 tons of products abroad in 2023, for an amount of 51.5 billion FCFA.
This sales volume is up more than 12,000 tons (22%) year on year, and in terms of value, the export of household soap from Cameroon brought in 14.5 billion FCFA more than in 2022, according to the increase of income in of 39%. . In 2023, Cameroon will sell its soaps in countries such as the Central African Republic where almost 42% of the population uses Azur brand soap, produced by the Azur company.
At least that is what the Bellomar Learning platform shows, which distributes information about the most promising business sectors in Africa. Other products contributed significantly to increasing the import bill in 2023. Among them are food preparations based on grains, fruits and vegetables, whose imports were 92.5 billion FCFA (+14.5%); refined cane or beet sugar, with imports amounting to 72.6 billion FCFA (+64.4%).
We can also mention corn, for which Cameroon spent 7.9 billion FCFA in 2023 (+ 138%), machinery and mechanical or electrical equipment for which the bill comes to 656 billion FCFA (+ 26.1%), Transportation materials are included at a cost of 376.6. billion FCFA (+ 23.1%), unroasted malt which cost 54.6 billion FCFA (+16%) in Cameroon, drinks and alcoholic liquids which came in at 56.1 billion FCFA, up 9.2% .
