Cocoa has replaced crude oil as Cameroon’s single biggest source of export revenue for the first time in decades, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS) annual foreign trade report, with cocoa beans alone accounting for 26.3 per cent of export earnings in 2025 against 22.9 per cent for crude oil. The development marks a historic realignment of an economy that for generations treated petroleum as its primary earner of foreign exchange.
The INS said the change was mainly driven by prices. “The increase in cocoa exports is linked to rising international prices, with export unit prices remaining favorable for producers,” the institute noted, while oil export revenues were simultaneously squeezed by falling global prices. [Business in Cameroon](https://www.businessincameroon.com/agriculture/0904-15990-cocoa-overtook-crude-oil-as-cameroon-s-top-export-in-2025-driven-by-global-price-surge) The crossing of these two trajectories in the same year produced a result that few observers had anticipated, at least not this soon.
Liquefied natural gas ranked third at 11.4 per cent of export earnings, while cocoa paste and butter together made up 12.2 per cent. Wood products contributed 7.1 per cent and raw cotton 4 per cent. Taking cocoa beans and processed cocoa products together, the sector’s combined share of export revenue reaches nearly 38.5 per cent, a dominant position that reflects both favourable pricing and a maturing domestic processing industry.
Growth in the cocoa sector is no longer limited to raw beans. Cocoa paste and butter generated approximately $641 million, or 12.2 per cent of total revenues in 2025, equivalent to 377 billion CFA francs. This reflects changes over the past decade in the domestic cocoa industry, with new processors such as Neo Industry, Atlantic Cocoa and Africa Processing setting up operations since 2015, while existing players including SIC Cacaos, a subsidiary of Switzerland’s Barry Callebaut, have expanded capacity.
Cameroon processed 109,431 tonnes of cocoa beans during the 2024 to 2025 season, up 27.7 per cent from 89,672 tonnes the previous season and the highest volume ever recorded in a national season. National cocoa output reached 309,518 tonnes, meaning 35 per cent was processed domestically. Two policy drivers have accelerated this shift: European Union deforestation regulations effective December 30, 2025, which require geolocation records for each farm plot, and the transfer of sustainability price premiums from European grinders to processors at origin.
The global market context has been equally favourable. The Netherlands overtook Germany in 2025 to become the world’s leading exporter of cocoa products, shipping goods worth $13.5 billion, with the Dutch statistics agency CBS attributing the surge primarily to a sharp rise in cocoa bean prices following several years of poor harvests in West Africa linked to adverse weather conditions. Cameroon sits squarely at the centre of this global trade expansion. Dutch cocoa bean imports from Cameroon rose from 8 per cent of total supply in 2020 to 11 per cent in 2025, matching Nigeria’s increased share over the same period. Amsterdam, the world’s leading cocoa trading hub, routes much of what it receives from Cameroon into semi-manufactured products such as cocoa butter and cocoa mass, which then flow to chocolate manufacturers across Europe and North America.
Cameroon ranked as the world’s seventh-largest exporter of cocoa paste and ninth-largest exporter of cocoa butter in 2024, according to a competitiveness report from the Ministry of Economy’s think tank. These rankings, combined with the record domestic processing volumes, suggest that Cameroon is gradually building a more value-added presence in the global cocoa supply chain rather than simply shipping raw beans.
However, caution is warranted. Cocoa’s top ranking in 2025 remains largely tied to high global prices. While the expansion of local processing provides a more structural driver, it remains uncertain whether this shift will prove permanent. A sustained correction in international cocoa prices, which remain historically elevated following years of supply shortfalls, could reverse the rankings quickly. For the shift to become durable, Cameroon would need to continue expanding processing capacity, improve farm-level productivity and comply with the increasingly stringent traceability requirements of its main export markets in Europe. The ingredients for a lasting transformation are present. Whether they are fully harnessed will depend on policy consistency and investment in the years ahead.
