In February 2023, MINEPAT news magazine wrote several articles to the activities of the Platform for Local Flour.
Four pages and three articles! That’s how much space MINEPAT allocated to presenting the Platform of Promoters of Local Flour in Cameroon (PROFALCAM) and its activities. In these three articles, MINEPAT (Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development) news magazine demonstrated the importance of this innovative association in Cameroon.
The magazine recalled that it was the Minister of the Economy, Alamine Ousmane MEY, who presided over the platform’s constituent General Assembly, which took place on August 23, 2022 at the Yaoundé Hilton Hotel. The latter was “delighted by the alignment of the platform’s missions (…) with the orientations of the National Development Strategy 2020 – 2030”.
According to the publication, through PROFALCAM, the government intends to “increase local production, accelerate the industrialization dynamic by promoting agricultural value chains, reduce dependence on imported cereal-based flours, strengthen food security and the resilience of the national economy, create stable jobs and improve people’s incomes”.
In the same vein, Zoutene Doufene, Director General of Planning and Regional Development, explained in an interview with the MINEPAT magazine that PROFALCAM’s action will enable it to support all local flour promoters, and also “to influence the market with a view to lifting the country out of its dependence on imported products.
According to the Managing Director, “the trade balance deficit has increased in value over the last ten years, rising from 590 billion in 2010 to 1292 billion in 2019”. For Zoutene Doufene, the government, with the help of PROFALCAM, is working to find administrative and fiscal measures to boost investment in the local flour sector. On August 23, 2022, the Director of Planning, in his capacity as representative of the Minister of the Economy, had already declared at the Constitutive General Meeting that “the government will spare no effort to accompany PROFALCAM in the realization of its ambition to promote local flours in Cameroon”.