The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. For each FEWS NET country and region, the Price Bulletin provides a set of charts showing monthly prices in the current marketing year in selected urban centers and allowing users to compare current trends with both five-year average prices, indicative of seasonal trends, and prices in the previous year.
Sorghum, maize, millet, and rice are the primary staples grown and consumed in the Far North region of Cameroon. Legumes such as cowpeas and groundnuts are also widely consumed. Onion is an important cash crop. Maroua and Kousseri host the most important reference markets in the Far North, responsible for the flow from rural to urban areas during harvest, and the opposite during the lean season. Other important reference markets include Mora, Mokolo, and Yagoua. Markets in the Far North play an important role in regional trade with neighboring Chad and Northeast Nigeria. However, as result of insecurity and conflict in the Greater Lake Chad basin, these trade corridors are often closed by the government, re-orientating trade flow more towards southern destinations, precisely Yaounde, Douala, Gabon, Equatoral Guinea and the Central Africa Republic (CAR). The Northwest region is a major production basin for maize and beans, while the Southwest region produces mainly plantain, cassava, and cocoyam. Potato and rice are also important crops produced and consumed in both regions. Palm oil is produced in both regions as an important cash crop sold mostly processed. These regions supply large cities in Cameroon and neighboring Gabon, Chad, and CAR, and also have important trade connections with Nigeria.
Reference markets in these regions include Bamenda, Kumbo, Fundong, Buea, Mamfe, and Limbe.of the ongoing conflict in the two regions. Some key reference markets in these regions include Bamenda, Kumbo, Fundong, Buea, Mamfe, and Limbe.
Most locally produced foods supplied in Yaoundé and Douala markets come from peri-urban and rural areas, as rapid urbanization of these cities has reduced the total areas under cultivation. Demand for banana, palm oil, and cassava processed products is huge, coming mainly from neighboring divisions and from the Southwest, West and South regions. Other highly demanded locally produced staples are macabo, maize, and beans, all externally supplied. Also, with Cameroon being an import dependent country for rice, more than 90 percent of the rice supplied in these city markets are imported from Asia.