Local oil production sector: Cameroon opts for safeguard measures

The Secretary-General of the Prime Minister, Louis Paul Motaze, echoing statements from the Cameroonian Prime Minister, summoned the Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey, to cancel all authorizations to import vegetable oils refined on the basis of the transaction value, issued by his Department.

The summon, was in correspondence to a publication by the private daily newspaper, Mutations, on June 3, 2015.

According to Louis Motaze, by virtue of the government's decision in March 2009, imports of vegetable oils on Cameroonian territory are only on the basis of a reference value which is generally designed to discourage imports to protect the local industry.

Moreover, the Cameroonian government admits that "the immediate implementation of these measures will save the oil seeds sector but some factories will be closed with the risk of a social crisis linked to implementing the unemployment of thousands of employees (the oilseed sector has around 32 000)."

Besides the measures taken, there was "the cancellation of all authorisations to import refined vegetable oils at the transaction value of the date, without delay,” the correspondence of the Prime Minister therefore required “strict application of the reference prices for all imports of such oils including regularization on shipments that have already entered the national territory on the basis of these uneven permissions."

“As a reminder, Cameroon oil seeds refiners Association (Asroc) have constantly denounced the flooding of the local market by imported vegetable oils since the beginning of this year 2015,. Meanwhile, the local industry met the request of the national market in refined oils with support from Asroc.

Asroc noted that this market practically became the only outlet of the domestic production for several months due to the drop in exports to Nigeria, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Congo and the Central African Republic (car) due to Boko Haram attacks and the crisis in the CAR.