Migrant Cocoa Farmers in Southeast Liberia Demand Payment in Foreign Currency

By: Ben T.C. Brooks| River Gee County Contributing Reporter

River Gee/Grand Gedeh Counties- Oct. 14, 2025-The once-bright vision that cocoa farming could have driven economic growth and infrastructure development in Liberia’s southeastern region is rapidly fading and overshadowed by a troubling economic trend of growing dominance of CFA franc transactions in the local cocoa trade sector.

The shift, fueled largely by Burkinabé migrant farmers operating in River Gee and Grand Gedeh Counties, is draining local markets of Liberian dollars and destabilizing an already fragile rural economy.

According to statistics from the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS), more than 45,000 Burkinabé nationals were officially registered in the two counties as of July 2025, while their registration has generated millions of Liberian dollars in government fees, but the broader financial impact tells a different story.

Instead of strengthening local currency circulation, much of the cocoa revenue is being channeled through informal CFA-based trade networks, bypassing the Liberian financial system entirely.

“The cocoa business could have brought real money into our county helping people build decent homes and support community projects but that’s not happening because most transactions are now done in CFA,” said Joe Karpeh, a cocoa agent in Tuobo, Gbarweliken District, River Gee County.

Karpeh explained that Liberian agents often act as intermediaries, but the actual cash flow leaves the country.

“The foreign farmers prefer to sell in CFA through us, but the money doesn’t stay here. It goes back to their families across the border. Our communities see no real benefit.”

In Grand Gedeh County, cocoa cooperative leaders share similar frustrations. Abraham S. Barh of the Komana Cocoa Cooperative Society and Lawrence Paye of Paye & Brothers Cocoa Cooperative said Burkinabé nationals now dominate the farming landscape and refuse to accept payments in Liberian dollars.

“We buy cocoa at around L$500 per kilo, but the Burkinabés won’t take Liberian dollars. They only deal in CFA because they send the money home,” Barh said. “Only Liberian farmers still accept our currency.”

Barh added that this growing dependence on the CFA franc is stripping local communities of the financial benefits that cocoa exports should bring.

“The system gives nothing back no roads, no schools, no visible development. The money earned here leaves immediately.”

He described how agents must sometimes convert proceeds from cocoa sales in Monrovia back into CFA before paying migrant farmers a process that is both costly and frustrating.

“We sell in Monrovia in U.S. or Liberian dollars, then have to change it into CFA when we return. It’s a cycle that benefits no one locally,” Barh lamented.

Adding to the financial strain are high transportation costs from the southeast to Monrovia. Cocoa buyers report that moving one ton of cocoa costs between US$90 and US$120, depending on road conditions and truck availability.

These expenses further reduce profits and discourage investment in local processing or value-added production.

Local cooperatives are now calling for urgent government intervention. They want the Ministry of Agriculture, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), and the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) to address the issue before it worsens.

They argue that the unregulated use of foreign currency in domestic trade undermines national monetary policy, weakens fiscal control, and deepens rural poverty. The trend, they warn, could also derail the Central Bank’s ongoing efforts to stabilize the Liberian dollar and build public confidence in the financial system.

Yet for many migrant farmers, the preference for CFA transactions is simply a matter of survival.

“I have a wife and two children in Burkina Faso. I came here to work, and farming is the only thing I know,” said Sosoê Bōkiå, a 43-year-old Burkinabé cocoa farmer in Toe Town, speaking through an interpreter. “I sell in CFA because that’s what I send home. If things improve, maybe one day I’ll bring my family here.”

Bōkiå’s story humanizes the economic dilemma highlighting how foreign exchange dependency is not just an economic issue, but a social and migration challenge deeply tied to livelihoods.

Community leaders and cooperatives are urging the government to regulate currency usage, empower Liberian-owned cooperatives, and invest in local cocoa processing plants to ensure that more of the industry’s value remains within Liberia.

“If nothing changes,” one cooperative leader cautioned, “our land will continue enriching others while our people stay poor.”

Unless decisive measures are taken, the cocoa boom once seen as a beacon of rural hope may soon become a stark example of how uncontrolled foreign trade and currency dependency can quietly dismantle local economies from within.