By: J. Mason Kollie |Lofa Correspondent
Many cocoa farmers in lower Lofa, particularly the Gbandi Chiefdom are calling on the Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA) to properly put in place an effective price system for the benefit of all involved in the coco sector.
According to some of the cocoa farmers, there are buyers who come from neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone with their own sets of prices to buy from them without LACRA or any monitoring entity from government.
“Imagine my brother, buyers from Sierra Leone and Guinea buy our cocoa at their own prices. Some buy the cocoa for 200LD per Kilo and while others purchase for Liberian dollars $300.00 to $400.00 per kilo, so there is no stable price right now. Hence, the reason of our call for LACRA to step in by deploying its agents across Lofa so that we are guarded as to where to sell our coco and other similar commodities,” Kanneh Salia said in an interview.
During investigative tour in the lower Lofa belt, it was confirmed that cocoa producers or farmers usually sell their coco products to neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone because of the lack of LACRA personals visibility in the community.
Some cocoa farmers also alleged that the neighboring countries are also exploiting the cocoa business with the foreign exchange (US exchange) rate.
“The people don’t easily accept Liberian dollars in their countries, so if you want to exchange the Liberian currency to their own, the rate drops terribly.”
Meanwhile, the cocoa farmers are appealing to national government to support them with fertilizers, chemicals and seedlings in order to increase production.
