Cameroon:The 2016 edition of the international festival of Cameroonian cocoa, to run from 11 to 13 August in Yaounde

The 2016 edition of Festicacao, the international festival of Cameroonian cocoa, will take place from 11 to 13 August at the Palais des Sports of Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, the Interprofessional Cocoa and Coffee Council (CICC) announced. This edition will be centred on the theme: “regeneration by New Generation”, a way of celebrating the results of the New Generation programme launched in 2012.

This programme, which is meant to rejuvenate farms and farmers in the cocoa and coffee sectors already enabled the supervision of 1,000 youth in the production areas of the country, young farmers who were able to create 1,400 hectares of cocoa farms to date. The first farms from this programme started producing during the 2014-2015 season.

Before the 2016 Festicacao, CICC even organised from 8 to 9 August at the Palais des Congrès of Yaoundé, the very first edition of the New Generation forum on the theme: “Cocoa-coffee: opportunity sectors for the youth”. This event gathered hundreds of youth and the different players in the cocoa-coffee sectors.

According to CICC, the main goals of the event were “to share the learnings and exchange experiences on youth access to the work market in agriculture in general and the cocoa-coffee sectors in particular, to generate support from public and private partners to the New Generation programme, to present the New Generation programme as an opportunity to return home for the Cameroonian diaspora, to reflect on and develop strategies and partnerships to ensure the longevity and amplification of the programme”.