Putting Partnerships into Practice. 2020 edition

Putting Partnerships into Practice | 2020 edition

The EPA with Central Africa – Cameroon CAMEROON E-commerce enables African home design exports

Creativity, tradition and proudly African.

Edith Tialeu sees tremendous opportunities in e-commerce and aims to become one of the top interior design e-shops within the next few years; an e-shop where people around the world can buy homeware produced in Africa. She also plans to reach 15 new wholesalers around the world. The EPA between the EU and Cameroon is helping her global expansion. Not only does it allow Frida-54 to ship products to the EU duty free and quota free, but it also provides a platform to discuss with Cameroon authorities how to overcome obstacles related to cross- border payments and logistics – some of the key challenges that Edith Tialeu has identified for her business.

These are the values that define Frida-54, a Cameroon- based brand of home decorations and textiles. When founder Edith Tialeu created Frida-54 in 2016, she wanted products to be designed by African artists, using African materials and inspired by African stories, cultures and traditions. To sell her products she looks beyond Africa: 3 years on from being established, Frida has sales points in Cameroon, France, Ghana, Rwanda, the United Kingdom and the United States, and exports to other EU Member States via its web shop.

The EU is by far the main export destination for Cameroonian products. Total trade has been relatively stable over the past years (around EUR 3.5 billion). The main export products are oil and gas, cocoa beans, wood, bananas and aluminium. Nevertheless, Cameroon has been able to start diversifying its exports: the share of butter and powder in overall cocoa exports is continuously increasing, and so are exports of niche products such as prepared beans and alternative (non-wheat) flour.

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