One of Central Africa’s top export outposts is in decline, with the Central African State Bank (or the BEAC) warning that Cameroon’s timber industry—which exports huge volumes of logs, sawn wood, plywood, and veneer to China and Vietnam via the port of Douala— is now in trouble.
It comes as the BEAC warns that Cameroon, also the central shipping point for the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, is struggling “due to poor road conditions, (and) disruptions in electricity supply,” which in turn is now hindering the industry’s long-term growth.
The bleak forecast comes as the industry gears up for a progressive increase in export taxes on logs and minimally processed wood across Cameroon. The BEAC report states, “This tax hike has already dampened the activity of some local forestry operators.”
For its measure, the Cameroon government claims that the higher export taxes are the first step, which could see a total ban on log shipments from the Economic Community of Central African States (or CEMAC) from 2028 – less than four years away.
According to the Cameroon Ministère des Forêts et de la Faune (or the MINIS), the country’s timber industry produced more than 3.3 million metres of logs, with “most of his volume used to export products from primary processing” sold into China, Vietnam, and (an increasingly diminishing amount) into Western Europe.
Central African timber exports pivot from Europe to Asia.
Last year, Wood Central reported that 4.2 million tonnes of timber products (from 2012 to 2023) were traded into Asia (instead of Europe), with the CEMAC heavily connected to China’s Belt and Road Initiative – now responsible for more than 30% of the global trade in forest products.
As a result, timber exports to the EU from Central Africa have more than halved, falling from $US1.4 billion to $US600 million, according to the Central Africa Forest Observatory, which reports that European supply chains have turned away from Central Africa and instead are targeting South America and South East Asia for semi-finished timber products.
“These are cost-effective in terms of storage, ready-to-use and can easily be transported by container,” according to Alain Ngoya Kessy, who compiled the report – Congo Basin Forests The State of the Forests produced by Central Africa Forest Observatory (OFAC) last year.
“Despite measures taken to encourage forest operators to develop higher value-added products, the delay by Central African countries remains quite significant due to lack of infrastructures, non-standard transport cost and lack of training in timber-related jobs,” Mr Kessy said.
- To learn about the challenges and opportunities for timber in Central Africa, click here for the Congo Basin Forests – The State of the Forests report.
