LACRA Holds Strategic Meeting with Cocoa Exporters
We had a strategic meeting yesterday October 8 with Cocoa exporters. The meeting was centered on a number of issues including our recent increment in export royalty.
But during the meeting, our Director General Honorable Christopher D. Sankolo outlined reasons why the Board of LACRA took the decision to increase Cocoa Royalty. “we were given a straight mandate by the President to rebrand LACRA to make it even better than the former LPMC” DG Sankolo noted.
With this increment in royalty, we will be able to open our facilities across the country, invest in nursery development, and provide direct support to farmers through the provision of pesticides, and equipment for yearly underbrushing” he said. “It is in this direction that the Board give us the go ahead to recruit temporary workers to be deployed at various warehouses and borders in the counties to curtail smuggling and the importation of substandard cocoa from neighboring countries” DG stated during the meeting.
Our Deputy Director General for Administration and Finance Honorable Chea Brown Garley and Deputy Director General for Operations and Technical Services Honorable Godia Alpha Kortu Gongolee were also in attendance. They buttressed the Director General statement on the issue of the royalty increment and quality of the Liberian cocoa. “this increment will help address most of our basic needs. They added. Honorable Sankolo continued “The President has been concerned about the quality of the cocoa that is being exported from Liberia and it is too disheartening. He said it is based on this that we have introduced a policy to ensure we no longer import or export substandard Cocoa in and out of the country.
But the Exporters Association through their spokesman Shiek Turay appealed to LACRA to revisit the decision because according to him, the increment was too high. “we have not come to argue with you but to appeal to you to look for possible means to reduce this amount, it is too much for us“. Shiek Turay noted. Well, the meeting didn’t conclude with a way forward. On Thursday October 10, another meeting to find a way forward will be called.
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