Cameroon honey
In this catalogue, the country of one protected honey: the pale white honey of Mount Oku and the Kilum-Ijim forest in the Northwest Region, registered as a geographical indication with OAPI in 2013.
How honey is produced here
Oku white honey comes from forest apiaries at altitude, worked by highland African honey bees in traditional and top-bar hives sited within and around the montane forest.
Production and trade in numbers
| Year | Honey production (tonnes) | Beehives (number) | Honey exports (tonnes) | Honey exports ($ thousand) | Honey imports (tonnes) | Honey imports ($ thousand) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,414 (imputed) | 313,081 (imputed) | 56 | 62 | 38 | 78 |
| 2016 | 4,448 (imputed) | 312,474 (imputed) | 47 | 43 | 20 | 34 |
| 2017 | 4,500 (FAO estimate) | 312,018 (imputed) | 29 | 22 | 22 | 51 |
| 2018 | 4,500 (FAO estimate) | 311,696 (imputed) | 12 | 30 | 26 | 46 |
| 2019 | 4,554 (imputed) | 311,417 (imputed) | 6 | 4 | 27 | 45 |
| 2020 | 4,699 (imputed) | 311,100 (imputed) | 55 | 18 | 28 | 56 |
| 2021 | 4,615 (FAO estimate) | 310,012 (imputed) | 76 | 33 | 15 | 37 |
| 2022 | 4,682 (FAO estimate) | 309,400 (imputed) | 72 | 30 | 12 | 19 |
| 2023 | 4,761 (FAO estimate) | 308,819 (imputed) | 132 | 70 | 23 | 28 |
| 2024 | 4,842 (FAO estimate) | 308,239 (imputed) | 26 (from an external organisation) | 58 (from an external organisation) | 53 (from an external organisation) | 152 (from an external organisation) |
FAOSTAT, extracted 2026-09-29. Values not received as official national figures are marked as estimated or imputed. A year with no figure is a dash, never a zero. Trade values are customs declarations — not producer prices and not profit. Open it in the country tool, or read how countries compare.
Protected names in Cameroon
- Oku white honey — protected geographical indication
As each honey’s record states it. HoneyHQ does not hold these specifications; the honey page says what the protection covers. Every protected name, on the honey atlas
Honeys from Cameroon
Bees associated with this origin
- African honey beeApis mellifera scutellataThe tropically adapted African honey bee that, crossed with European stock in Brazil in 1957, produced the Africanized populations of the Americas. In its own range it is simply the honey bee of eastern and southern Africa — productive, mobile, defensive, and superbly adapted to heat, drought and a formidable list of predators including honey badgers, ants and hive beetles.
- African mountain honey beeApis mellifera monticolaA honey bee of the high mountains of East Africa — Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, the Ethiopian highlands and the Ruwenzori — living above 2,000 metres in conditions no other African honey bee tolerates. It is larger, darker, hairier and markedly gentler than the lowland African bee, and it has attracted breeding interest for exactly that combination.
Honey in Cameroon
Miel blanc d’Oku was among the first three geographical indications registered by OAPI, the shared intellectual-property office of seventeen African states, on the same day as Penja pepper. The Oku producers’ association holds it.
Elsewhere in Africa
Sources
Sources
- L’expérience de l’Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) en matière de protection et de gestion des indications géographiques — World Intellectual Property Organization (presentation by J.-B. N. Wago, Directeur de Cabinet of the OAPI Director General) (2017) · Regulatory guidance Link
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Explore these honeys
- Honey finder
Which honey should I buy for what I actually want to do with it?
- Flavour selector
I like this taste — which honeys have it?
- Honey comparison
How do these honeys actually differ, beyond colour?
- Honey substitute calculator
How much honey do I use instead of sugar, and what else has to change?
- Storage guide
How should I store honey, and what do I do when it sets?