The import bill for food products, particularly consumer goods (rice, fish and wheat) tripled between the periods 2007 and 2017, representing respectively on average more than a third of the trade deficit and 4% of GDP since 2013.La abolition of customs duties, the objective of which was to fight against the high cost of living, in an international context marked by the energy crisis and the food crisis, undoubtedly contributed to this situation, until 2016, when customs duties were restored on these products.
As a reminder, the tax exemption of these basic food products has had the direct consequence in the State budget, a considerable loss of income of about 443 billion CFA francs between 2008 and 2015.All the studies carried out have so far led to the conclusion that the sustainable solution to reduce the food bill, and by extension the deficit of the trade balance, is the increase, in the medium and long term, of the national supply of food products.
Indeed, a simple calculation shows that a 50% reduction in imports of consumer food products could have induced, if the measure had been taken, a reduction in the trade balance deficit of 20% in 2017. Cameroon has the required potential and will be able, while ensuring a certain food self-sufficiency, to substantially increase its diversified exports, which are increasingly composed of processed products.
