The Demise of the Commercial Banana Industry in West Cameroon

Abstract

In little more than 20 years, the banana industry in West Cameroon rapidly boomed, and just as quickly declined. The banana was selected by officials of the newly created Cameroons Development Corporation in 1946 to be its major money crop, and from 1947 to 1957, the industry's income steadily rose to a high of over $6,000,000 for a year's production. During the next dozen years, production declined to the point where no new plantings are contemplated, and for all intents and purposes, the industry is almost dead. Factors accounting for the demise of this banana industry include: unsuitable climatic conditions; seemingly inevitable blights; loss of Commonwealth preference on exports to the United Kingdom; and foreign competition. Producers of almost all commercial agricultural products in tropical Africa contend with precisely the same risks and/or problems that the Cameroon banana grower faced. As a case study, the Cameroon banana situation reveals that sometimes all risks were poor ones, and therefore changes in land use had to be made, utilizing other, more stable commercial crops.