According to Cameroon customs statistics, Cameroon’s cotton imports tripled from 2000 to 2004, but during this period, the turnover of Cameroon Cotton Industry Company (Cotonnière industrielle du Cameroun, CICAM for short) dropped by 50%. Most of the textile markets are products from Asia and Europe, with textiles from China and the Netherlands growing the fastest. In 2006, the total textile import volume reached 28,000 tons, with an import value of 25 billion CFA francs. Given that the textile market is still developing, Cameroonian textile companies, under the leadership of the Interprofession Coton Textile et Confection (ICOTEC), are striving to capture market share.
ICOTEC Chairman Caroline Sack Kendem said that with the support of government funds, the association will organize textile companies and strive to achieve the goal of 40% of cotton being processed domestically in 2015. . She said that there were more than 30 textile companies in Cameroon in the 1980s, but in the past 10 years, only 2-3 have grown.
According to statistics, Cameroon has a huge domestic demand for textiles, with the average annual total consumption of residents being about 150 billion CFA francs. However, the main problems currently encountered by textile companies are insufficient supply of raw materials, low product quality, and recruitment and training of labor. It cannot meet production needs, and illegal activities still exist in the fields of production and sales.
