Developing
Minister of Commerce Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana ordered unused fish import quotas to be reassigned to importers able to deliver, at a meeting in Yaounde on 4 November 2026 with government administrations, producers and importers, the ministry said. The minister told Congelcam chief executive Sylvestre Ngouchinghe to launch a new communication campaign to reassure households, after the company warned in September 2026 of a fish shortage.
Official figures presented at the meeting show Congelcam held 130,000 of the 200,000 tonnes of import quotas allocated to 52 operators for 2026, about 66 percent of the total. Of the 52 beneficiaries, 18 had imported nothing by the date of the meeting, and the others had imported only marginally, the figures show. The minister ordered that their unused quotas be redeployed to importers capable of supplying fish. The representative of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries (MINEPIA) approved the decision.
Local fish production stood at about 259,000 tonnes in 2025 against annual national demand estimated at nearly 500,000 tonnes, the ministry said. It restated the Integrated Agro-Pastoral and Fisheries Import-Substitution Plan (PIISAH) as the government's priority, calling on local producers to win market share rather than rely on quotas.