Cameroon's 2026-2027 cocoa campaign opens within days. It will be the first whose beans largely reach the European market after 30 December 2026, when the EU deforestation regulation starts applying. Roughly 80% of the country's cocoa exports head that way.

Blue Star Media · Daily Brief · Monday 3 August 2026 · Commodities

The 2025-2026 season closed on 15 July. The next is expected to be launched in the coming days: the previous campaign opened on 7 August 2025 at Mbankomo, in the Centre region. That calendar looks routine. The deadline sitting inside it is not.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 — the EUDR — bars products sourced from land deforested after 31 December 2020 from the European single market. It covers seven commodities: cocoa, coffee, rubber, palm oil, soy, cattle and wood, along with several derived products including cocoa butter. Operators must run a due diligence system combining geolocated plot-level traceability, a risk assessment and a declaration in the TRACES platform.

The timetable has been pushed back more than once. In its current form, application begins on 30 December 2026 for large and medium-sized companies. Published deadlines for micro and small operators vary across sources — 30 June 2027 outside the timber sector in some legal analyses, 30 December 2027 in others. Operators concerned should work from the consolidated text rather than press summaries.

According to the National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC), roughly 80% of Cameroon's bean exports are destined for Europe and close to 19% for Asia, with Nigeria emerging as a growing buyer at some 2,100 tonnes. The European Commission classifies Cameroon as "standard risk" under the country benchmarking attached to the regulation — a status that sets how intensively importing operators are checked.

The 2024-2025 campaign set a volume benchmark: 309,518 tonnes exported, up 16% on the 266,710 tonnes of 2023-2024, and the first time the annual target of 300,000 tonnes was cleared, according to the ONCC campaign report. The exporter side remains concentrated: SBET accounted for 18.45% of volumes, ahead of Telcar Cocoa, a joint venture with Cargill.

Beans traded between 2,700 and 2,750 FCFA per kilo on 14 July 2026, the eve of the campaign's formal close, after reaching 2,750 to 2,850 FCFA on 10 July — the highest level recorded since the season opened. A month earlier, on 19 June, the range was still around 1,950 to 2,000 FCFA, according to the ONCC sector information system.

Set against the two previous seasons, those levels remain distant: the 2024-2025 campaign peaked at 5,400 FCFA per kilo, and 2023-2024 at about 6,300 FCFA in some producing basins. At the CFA franc's fixed peg to the euro (1 EUR = 655.957 FCFA), that is roughly €4.19 per kilo in July 2026 against €8.23 and €9.60 in the two prior peaks. The explanation offered points to the world market rather than the domestic sector: after the historic deficit of 2023-2024, the latest International Cocoa Organization estimates show a surplus for 2024-2025, driven by improved supply and slower industrial demand.

For the season now opening, the two series read together: a traceability requirement whose deadline falls mid-campaign on the principal outlet, and a price environment leaving less room to absorb the cost of compliance. As of 3 August 2026, neither the indicative farmgate price nor the opening date of the 2026-2027 campaign had been announced publicly by the authorities.

Sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products and published legal analyses; European Commission country benchmarking; National Cocoa and Coffee Board (ONCC), campaign report and sector information system, via Investir au Cameroun, 15 July 2026; Cameroun24 and Sikafinance for the launch of the 2025-2026 campaign; International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). Figures and shares that are not primary are reported as published by the cited sources; the 2023-2024 maximum is given as approximate by the source. Euro equivalents are conversions at the fixed CFA franc peg, not quoted prices.

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