Scaling up coffee production and extending the Cameroon washed coffee project in Kupe Muanenguba and environs

Project Focus: Introducing new technology and enhancing village livelihood

Estimated cost: 3  Million  Euros

CONTENT

         1.     GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1. APPLICANT ORGANISATION

1.2. ORIGINS AND GROWTH

1.3    OBJECTIVES

1.4    MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

1.5   MAIN PRODUCTS

1.6    MAJOR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

1.7. CURRENT STRENGTHS

        2.    THE PROJECT

2.1. SUMMARY

2.2. THE PROJECT IN DETAIL

2.3. PROJECT SITES/STATIONS

2.3.1. MUAMBONG

        2.3.2. BANGEM

2.3.3. TOMBEL

        2.3.4. Manjo

        2.3.5. Douala – Bonaberi                     

2.4. INPUTS

        2.5. THE BENEFICIARY OR STAKEHOLDER POPULATION

        2.6. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

        2.7. ORGANISATIONAL CHART (Chede Union’s Long Term Organ gram)

        2.8. KEY INDUSTRY SUCCESS FACTORS

        3. MARKET AND COMPETITION

3.1. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

3.2. SWOT ANALYSIS

         3.2.1 – Strengths

         3.2.2 – Weaknesses

        3.2.3 – Opportunities

        3.2.4 – Threats

 3.3.   MARKETING PLAN

        3.3.1 – PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

        3.3.2 – SEGMENT OF TARGET MARKET

        3.3.3 – ZONE OF TARGET MARKET

3.3.4 – DEMAND ANALYSIS

3.4.5 – SUPPLY ANALYSIS

        4.  PROPOSED SECURITIES AND GUARANTEES

4.1 – Chede Coffee Plantation in Muambong

        4.2. Other Fixed Assets

        5. ADDITIONAL SECURITY SCHEME

        6. SOURCES OF FINANCE

7. ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES

7.1.   NEGATIVE IMPACT

7.1.1 – Environmental Impact

7.1.2 – Economic Impact

7.1.3 – Cultural Impact

7.2.   POSITIVE IMPACT

7.2.1 – Environmental impact

7.2.2 – Economic Impact

                  7.2.2.1 – Poverty Alleviation

7.2.2.2 – Need to Boost the Production Coffee

                  7.2.2.3 – Contribution to the Unemployment Strategy    

8.  FISCAL YEAR END PROFIT AND LOSS PROJECTION IN F.cfa

9. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

10. RATIOS

11. WORKING

11.1 SALES REVENUE

        11.2 COST OF SALES

                   11.2.1) Cost of purchase

                   11.2.2) process cost

                   11.3. HUMAN RESOURCE TEN YEAR PLAN

                   11.4. NON CURRENT ASSETS

                   11.5. INVESTMENT

                   11.6. INCREMENTAL ASSET INVESTMENT

                   11.7. RETAIN EARNINGS

                   11.8 WEIGHTED AVERAGE COST OF CAPITAL

1       GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1. APPLICANT ORGANISATION

Chede Cooperative Union Ltd (hereafter referred to as Chede)

Head Office: Muambong, P.O  Box 20 Bangem, Kupe Muanenguba, South West Region of Cameroon

Commercial Office:  P.O. Box 5361 Douala

Tel :  +237-22  12 52 99

+237-79 54 89 29

+237-77 73 52 70

Email: chede@chede.org and chede.cameroon@gmail.com

Website  :  www.chede.org

Legal Status

Union of agricultural cooperative societies and common initiative groups  constituted  in 2003  in Buea, South West region, with registration  number SW/UC/25/03/3655, within the framework of Law No. 92/006 of 6 August 1992  on Cooperative Societies and Common Initiative Groups.

1.2.  ORIGINS AND GROWTH

Chede originates from the “Chede Agric Project” established in 1986 as an agricultural and community modernization initiative in Muambong, Bangem Subdivision of the Kupe Muanenguba Division in the South West region. This Project established a Robusta coffee farm that sought to demonstrate high quality farming standards through the use of improved seeds and  best farming practices that would increase farm yields and prices as well as producer incomes.

After a decade of difficult gestation due mostly to  the rural infrastructure deficits  that constrain smallholder agricultural  modernization in Cameroon, the original Chede Agric Project was nevertheless sufficiently successful to lead  to the creation of Chede Muambong Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd  (MUAFCOOP) in 1995, the Chede Project serving as its locomotive. The success over time of this village-based cooperative inspired neighbouring villages to emulate the Muambong example by forming similar farmer groups in Kupe Muanenguba Division and environs.  As a result  of this rapid trend, the  need  arose in 2003 to form the Chede Cooperative Union Ltd to spur the increasing numbers of village-based farmer groups in need of various farmer-support services and marketing outlets for their produce, including export  opportunities for some products such as, coffee and cocoa.

Meanwhile, the difficult lessons derived from the Chede Project’s quasi-landlocked village setting  gave rise to a Chede-specific development concept, namely: village-oriented (or village-first; village-sensitive; village-centred) approaches  to smallholder agricultural modernization (meaning  village-based agricultural modernization as opposed to plantation agriculture) .  This development concept is explained extensively in a 2004 Chede publication entitled “Agricultural expansion for poverty  eradication in Africa: rethinking strategy from a village perspective – case study of Cameroon”  as well as in articles all to be found on the Chede Resource Center.

Starting in 2004, a number of international civil society groups  espousing Chede’s village-oriented approach  to the development of Africa’s smallholder agriculture formed Chede entities  in France, Netherlands, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. These entities together with Chede and its affiliated farmer groups now form the “Chede International Development Network” which is described on the Chede website. The  prime goal of this network is to promote Chede’s  village-focused approach to  agricultural and rural development  as the basis for tackling the  wider challenges  of Africa’s rural socio-economic modernization.

As a Cooperative Union, Chede’s membership as of 30 June 2012 includes 30 farmer groups (cooperatives, common initiative groups, and other village-based civil society organizations) comprising a cumulative total of over 10’000 individual farmers and development actors in the rural sector. Chede’s own assets, especially agricultural investments such as its demonstration Agric Project, piggery, and  buildings and equipment at its operations headquarters in Muambong, are valued at over 600 million FCFA (900’000 Euros) as at 30 June 2012.  The farm investments (coffee, cocoa, and food crops) of members of its affiliated groups forming the Chede village cooperative network extend over 5’000 hectares with a roughly estimated value of 50 billion FCFA (76’000’000 Euros).

1.3. OBJECTIVES

Strategic and developmental

To promote and support village-oriented  (alias village-sensitive, village-centred, village-first) development approaches as vehicle for boosting smallholder agricultural modernization  and productivity  as well as village household incomes in Cameroon. The sectors of predilection include: agriculture and rural development; Non-timber forest products (NTFPs); natural environmental and biodiversity protection; food industry; and agricultural and food trade.

Operational

–          Provide farmer trainings and other farmer capacity building services on best farming practices, including judicious application of farm inputs;

–          Organise bulk and advantageous acquisition of farm  inputs from public and private sources;

–          Negotiate farm credits on favourable terms  with local financial institutions for the benefit of member cooperatives;

–          Ensure the processing (value-addition) of most of the fresh food production of the membership and other suppliers;

–          Market and distribute primary and processed food products of the cooperative membership;

–          Develop and design project proposals, and execute, monitor and evaluate projects that support Chede’s strategic and operational objectives.

1.4. MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

  • Establishment in 1986 of the Chede Agric Project in Muambong that has since evolved into an agricultural and community modernization locomotive in Kupe Muanenguba Division and also into an international development resource network described on the Chede website: www.chede.org.
  • Conclusion of partnership conventions with IRAD (Institute of Agronomic Research for Development); IITA Cameroon  (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Cameroon office); MIPROMALO  ( Local Materials Promotion Agency); AVRDC (World Vegetable Center – Cameroon Liaison Office); and various programmes and projects of the MINADER (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), especially PSCC (Projet Semencier Cacao et Café, and  (2P3C) Programme Pilote Cacao, Café et Cotton);
  • Construction in 2009 of a community produce evacuation road from Muambong to Abang on the Manjo-Douala express road with the support of Manos Unidas, Spanish development and financial partner of Chede since 2008 ;
  • Establishment in 2009 of a major livestock pilot project in Muambong, Kupe Muanenguba, with the technical and financial support of the United Nations Development Programme, Sub-Programme for poverty reduction at the grassroots;
  • Government’s selection in 2010 of Chede Cooperative Union as implementing agency in the South West region for the national Washed Coffee Project and establishment of a Robusta coffee washing station in Muambong in the same year (for the production of fully washed coffee), with financial support from the World Bank and European Union as well as  technical support from  FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations); ITC (International Trade Centre (ITC/UNCTAD/WTO); and others;
  • Development of a highly successful food processing and marketing business projected  to attain a turnover of upwards of 1’000’000’000 (one billion)  FCFA over the next five years or so.

1.5. MAIN PRODUCTS

  • Green coffee (fully washed and conventional), current capacity 500 -1000 tonnes;
  • Food crops (plantain, pepper, palm oil cassava, vegetables, etc);
  •  Non-timber forest products (Eru, palm wine, honey, mushroom, etc);
  • Manufactured/finished/packaged food products (eru, ndolè, green, folere, bobolo, miondo, cassava  leaves, etc);
  • Cocoa beans