Yaounde, Cameroon, Sep. 24 - Cocoa trade has resumed in Cameroon's East province after three weeks of protests that led to the death of two people and the injury of 10 others, the provincial governor and several traders told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.
The East province accounts for an estimated 6%-8% of Cameroon's annual cocoa output of nearly 180,000 metric tons, according to data from the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Board, or CCIB.
"Shops are now open and everybody is carrying out his or her business conveniently," Governor Abakar Hamat told Dow Jones Monday, adding that "business returned to normal on Saturday."
Cocoa supplies from the East province to the port city of Douala stalled as inhabitants went to the streets to demand the restoration of electricity in the area. The demonstrators blocked traffic to and from the area mounting barricades on the highway last week.
But traders reported that calm had now been restored.
"With calm having retuned to Abong Mbang town and neighboring localities, we finally transported our cocoa beans to Douala," said one middleman cocoa trader from Douala, Camil Abolo, who buys and sells cocoa in and out of the East province.
David Bile, the general-manager of Cameroon's sole energy supply firm, AES Sonel, issued a statement last week, promising the company's determination to restore electricity to several parts of the East province which has suffered power cuts for the past four months.
Like other parts of Cameroon, the East province has entered its main crop cocoa harvest. The harvest routinely stretches between September of each year through February/March of the subsequent year.