Cameroon reduced its cereal import bill in 2025. According to official foreign trade data, imports of these products totaled 466.9 billion CFA francs, down 14.1% from 2024.
The decline helped ease the overall import bill for plant-based products, which came in at 546 billion CFA francs, a 12.5% drop year-on-year. That category accounted for 10.4% of the country’s total imports in 2025.
The fall in cereal imports was largely driven by rice and wheat, which remain the two main cereals Cameroon imports. Rice imports reached 268.7 billion CFA francs, down 15.6% year-on-year. That single commodity represented 5.1% of the country’s total import expenditure.
The same trend was seen for wheat and meslin, whose import bill fell to 187.8 billion CFA francs, down 12.3% year-on-year. This category accounts for 3.6% of total import spending.
Corn, by contrast, remains marginal in the composition of Cameroon’s cereal imports. Its import bill stood at 10.3 billion CFA francs in 2025, equivalent to 0.2% of total imports.
Close reading
Cereals as a whole represented 8.9% of Cameroon’s import spending in 2025. The decline comes as the country continues to implement its import substitution policy, set out in the National Development Strategy 2020-2030, which aims to boost domestic production and reduce reliance on imported food.
Even so, the trend should be interpreted with caution. The drop in imports may reflect a gradual improvement in local supply, but it could also point to short-term factors such as foreign exchange pressures, rising costs or shifting demand in an inflationary environment.
Against that backdrop, cereal imports, particularly rice and wheat, remain a useful indicator of the effectiveness of public policy on food security and broader structural transformation.
