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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. Onions is an important cash crops in the region. Maroua and Kousseri are the two urban centers and host the most important reference markets in the Far North region. These markets are responsible for the flow of local harvest 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 region play an important role in regional trade with neighboring Chad and Northeast Nigeria. The Douala – Maroua – Kousseri corridor that extends to Chad includes the flow of imported commodities. The Maiduguri (Nigeria) – Maroua and Maiduguri – Kousseri corridor, both continuing to Chad, includes the flow of processed goods and also the re-export of key staples such as sorghum and rice back into Cameroon during the lean season and imported staples from surplus producing areas in Nigeria during harvest and postharvest periods. However, as result of frequent Boko Haram attacks, these trade corridors are often closed by the government re-orientating trade flow more towards southern destinations precisely Yaounde, Douala, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Central Africa Republic (CAR).
The North West region is a major production basin for maize and beans, while the South West region produces mainly plantain, cassava and cocoyams. Other important crops produced and consumed in both regions include solanum potato and lowland rice. Palm oil is also produced in both regions as an important cash crop sold mostly processed as palm oil. These regions supply large cities in Cameroon and neighboring Gabon, Chad, and CAR. The North West and South West regions also have important trade connections with Nigeria through the BamendaMamfe-Ekok and Kumba-Mamfe-Ekok (part of the Trans-African Highway) corridors and the Limbe-Idenau-Nigeria highway. These trade routes are faced with frequent closures as a result of the ongoing conflict in the regions. Some key reference markets in these regions include Bamenda, Kumbo, Fundong, Buea, Mamfe, and Limbe.