Ensuring Cocoa Quality: Minister Inspects Post-Harvest Treatment Facilities

Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana also used the visit to meet and sensitise cocoa farmers in the Nyong & Kelle Division of the Centre Region

In a bid to better the quality of Cameroon cocoa beans and in so doing up prices and sales, the Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana has inspected some Cocoa Post-Harvest Treatment Centres of Excellence in the Nyong & Kelle Division of the Centre Region. The visit, Tuesday August 22, 2017, first took the Minister to Mintaba, and then to Si Manyai, both in Bôt Makak Sub-division.
While presenting the fermentation and drying plant put in place, the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Council (CICC), officials of CICC said the modern facility is one of its kind on the continent. Detailing the technical specifications of the plant, the officials noted that the facility has a fermentation unit of three compartments, with the wet cocoa beans going through three phases of two days each for the first two phases. We observed that the drying oven makes use of small firewood and produces smoke only when the fire is set, but officials disclosed that in the days ahead, they will start making use of eco-friendly charcoal made from cocoa peelings which last four times longer. A solar unit to do fi...