Monrovia – A bill seeking to grant the Liberian Agricultural Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA) the exclusive right to export cocoa and coffee from Liberia is now the topmost debate among major agricultural actors and stakeholders.
The proposed legislation was discussed during the NC3P Cocoa Sector Platform forum meeting last week in Monrovia. In attendance were: two of Liberia’s Honorable lawmakers—Honorable Edward Kaffia and Honorable Jeremiah Kuong—LACRA’s Executive Director Dr. John Flomo, leading cocoa exporters and traders.
“The authority (LACRA) is hereby empowered as the only exporter of Liberia’s cocoa and coffee,” reads the proposed amendment seeking to change the Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority Act of 2016, to give only LACRA the right to export Liberia’s agricultural commodities, thus basically returning LACRA’s mandate to that of LPMC. “The authority shall sign agreement (when deem necessary) with companies or institutions that express interest in purchasing Liberia’s cocoa beans and coffee beans.” The bill is currently being discussed at the Legislature.
However, exporters, nongovernmental organizations and some farmers are against the amendment of the LACRA law. The protesting stakeholders said that they were not engaged, consulted nor given an opportunity to share their insights and expertise with the lawmakers before the bill was drafted. They said they learned about the move through a report in the Daily Observer late last month.
Currently, Cocoa is the third most important cash crop in Liberia. About 30,000 Liberian smallholder farmers are engaged in cocoa production. National cocoa bean production is estimated to be between 7,000 to 17,000 tons yearly, with an unknown amount of Liberian cocoa beans being informally exported to Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea. President George Weah has in the past stated that he wants to make the revitalization of Liberia’s cocoa sector a national priority.
The NC3P Cocoa Sector Platform is a multi-actor coalition of government, private sector, development programs, civil society and farming communities that assists in guiding the design and implementation of development interventions within Liberia’s cocoa sector. The platform’s stated goal is to improve alignment & coordination of sector actors’ activities, creating a more sustainable Liberian cocoa industry.
During Monday’s meeting, the National Cocoa and Coffee Exporters Association (LINACEA) was the most vocal about the direct rejection of the amendment. The group accuses LACRA of undermining competition and contradicting the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development. It says the proposed amendment is a “reincarnation” of a previous failed attempt to grant exclusive export rights to a single entity.
“This amendment is not in the interest of the people,” the chairman of LINACEA Sheikh A. Turay said in the NC3P-organized meeting. “It would reverse the course of the gains made so far in the cocoa sector, return a vibrant and competitive cocoa sector into slumber, and return 40,000 cocoa farmers into poverty.” He added that in the last five years over US$35 million has been invested in Liberia’s cocoa sector by both actors and development partners.
Representative Edward Kaffia of Bong County District No.5, who is the sponsor of the bill, said the bill wass farmer-friendly and meant to transform their lives. He said farmers were not feeling the impact of millions of dollars spent by Liberia’s development partners in the agriculture sector. It is unclear how changing LACRA’s mandate will translate to greater benefits for Liberian cocoa farmers: favorable pricing, improved services and easier access to agricultural inputs.
“You will bear with me that when monies are spent, value for money will be derived,” Representative Edward Kaffia pointed out. The lawmaker promised to invite farmers for the public hearings on the bill. “We have to look in the sector…to see what is workable,” he said. “Farmers are not living. They are simply just surviving.”
LACRA, on the other hand, said it needed the exclusive export right to generate more revenue to build cocoa infrastructure, provide transportation and assist farmers with improving their farming and preservation methods among other things.
“If it worked in other places, why can it not work in Liberia,” Dr. Flomo said in reference to Ghana and Ivory Coast, two countries that preserves export rights for their government. “We see this bill as a good bill. We know it is going to support our farmers, because when this bill passes we know that LACRA will have to establish centers in every district in Liberia so that our farmers get the maximum value for their produce.”
The Debate
Stakeholders are making claims and counterclaims about the bill.
Dr. Flomo responded to Turay’s point that LACRA’s sole export right will undermine the competitiveness of the market. From August last year to current, 12,321 metric tons of cocoa has from Liberia, he said, and that only 4,000 metric tons of the crop have been exported by Liberians. “When people say monopoly, by default we are already in monopoly.”
Bassam Sidani, whose Aya Group—according to LACRA—exports three thirds of Liberia’s cocoa, rubbished Dr. Flomo’s claims and reechoes Turay’s comments that a sole exporter right will undermine the progress already made in the sector.
Boima Bafaie, the Cocoa Programme Manager of Solidaridad, did not support the amendment. Solidaridad works with over 5,000 cocoa farmers in Bong, Nimba and Lofa, and has distributed over a million hybrid cocoa seedlings, according Bafaie. “LACRA is the regulator and they will become the exporter. How does that balance?” Bafaie said. “What happens to the Liberian exporters?”
Kevin Conroy of Grow Liberia, a business development firm, agreed with Bafaie. Conway revealed that in a number of Liberian exporters and cooperatives are going to meet European cocoa buyers to pitch their cooperatives cocoa products directly to those investors at the Chocoa Chocolate Trade Fair in Amsterdam, Netherlands. However, this amendment is creating uncertainty, according to him. “I already had phone calls early last week… and these buyers and our sources in Amsterdam are saying that this sector trade mission will be at risk if there is only a single exporter of cocoa, and if that exporter is the country’s regulator,” he said. “What is decided by the House in the coming days will have an effect on how Liberia is viewed internationally as a source of cocoa.” The European market favors Liberian cocoa because it is organic, mostly produced in dense agroforestry farm production systems. Thus, European buyers want to support Liberian farmers to continue to produce their cocoa crops in a sustainable manner.
Representative Kaffia criticized the Solidaridad cocoa projects. “For the last two years, quantify how much money has been spent in the cocoa sector for farmers’ support under the Solidaridad project and match that with what’s in the field in terms of farm development,” he says, asking rhetorically: “Is it adequate… or far less? That frustrates me.”
Momolu Tolbert, the CEO of the Liberia Cocoa Corporation, which holds one of the largest concession in the sector, jumped into Solidaridad’s defense. He said government investment in agriculture was minimal—not more than 3 percent of the total budget annually. “That is why farmers don’t get extension services, access to seeds, agricultural loans and extension services,” he argued. “The donors cannot cover everything in Liberia for Liberians,” and that Representative Kaffia’s comments about no yields on NGOs’ investment was an assumption. Foreign partners have spent over US$10 million on the cocoa and coffee industry, according to LACRA.
Dr. Flomo allays Conroy’s concerns. He argues European markets would react favorably to if the LACRA law is amended. “There is a fundamental issue that is not being addressed,” Dr. Flomo said, adding that Liberian cocoa and coffee were discounted by foreign buyers due to their poor standard. “All of our exporters have warehouses that are below the standard,” he said, excluding Atlantic, owned by businessman Clemenceau Urey. He referenced Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation, a mainstay of the Liberian economy before 1990, whose prewar legacy is still cited in many places as a model to add value to cocoa and other cash crops.
But an agriculturalist, Stanford Peabody, dismissed Dr. Flomo’s reference to LPMC. Peabody argues LACRA was created to replace LPMC, not to repeat its “flaws”. He said thought LPMC flourished, it could have done more if it were exporting to more companies other than the Dutch East Asiatic Company, a single buyer.
Representative of Nimba County District No.1 Jeremiah Koung, on the other hand, criticizes Peabody for not doing enough to improve agriculture for the decades he has spent in the sector. Peabody, however, hits back that he alone cannot make the impacts required to improve the sector, slamming lawmakers for tabling the bill before engaging stakeholders in the sector.
However, Peabody responded by saying that he is constantly seeking opportunities to share his expertise with both the private and public sector on ideas to improve and grow Liberia’s agricultural sector.
However, Peabody’s view was shared by Urey and Momolu Tolbert of the Liberia Cocoa Corporation, one of the largest concessions in the sector.
“Like you said you want to see good things for the farmers…then let the farmers come and speak with you,” Tolbert said. That a bill has been drafted and could potentially be quickly passed already. Due diligence needs to be done before ink touches the paper,” Tolbert added in reference to Representative Kaffia and Koung’s earlier comments.
The two lawmakers seemingly conceded, urging stakeholders to turn out when public hearings on the bill opens at the National Legislature.
The bill is before the House Committee on Judiciary and Agriculture. Following that, it would be discussed by the members of the House. If passed, it goes to the Senate for concurrence and then to President Weah for signature, and it is law.