Cameroon has hosted the first ever international cocoa festival. The festival kicked off on Thursday 7 November 2012 with an international conference in Mbalmayo in the South Region of Cameroon.

Participants from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, during the conference, discussed the future of the cocoa market.

Cameroon's Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, opened the international conference on Cocoa and its derivatives. The cocoa festival continued in Yaounde, Douala, Kumba and Mbangassina to promote the produce and its derivatives.

The cocoa festival in Douala was characterised by an exhibition of cocoa products and a motorised march through the streets of Douala.

Public attention was drawn to the need for more young people to invest in the planting and processing of Cocoa.

In Yaoundé, the public, through exhibitions, discovered the cocoa plant, its pods and beans as well as chocolate, oil and other products made from cocoa.

Producers and investors also used the occasion to exchange information on how to raise cocoa production.