PHOTO: Coffee farmers pose during the workshop session
A week-long training program on the importance of cooperatives for coffee producers has ended.
The training was held by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in collaboration with the Farmers Union Network of Liberia (FUNL.
The goal is to assist the cooperatives in the process of creating coffee cooperatives in Liberia to boost revenues.
Speaking at the start of the workshop, the coffee expert from Burundi, Ephrem Sabatigita said: “Liberia has a very great potential for coffee production but to make coffee more marketable there is a need that we transition the farming association into cooperatives.”
He also stated that he was in Liberia to assess the coffee production and to ensure that farmers are educated on how they can develop their coffee farming businesses.
The Program and Project Director at the Cooperative Development Agency, Harris Wennie said that his institution is working with the ITC and FUN to ensure that coffee farmers associations are transformed into cooperatives.
“We appreciate the capacity building for farmers, especially the process of educating the farmers on the need to transition into cooperatives. This is the only way that coffee farmers can get more money from their labour.”
“The coffee market is volatile because any of the farmers sell their coffee to neighboring countries getting very little profits.”
“We now have many of our coffee farmers who have inherited farms from their parents and have returned to active coffee farming,” he added.
The training started on July 4, 2023 in Gbarnga, Bong County and extended to Lofa and Nimba counties the following weeks.
The training is being organized by ITC and FUNL under the ITC/ACP EU funded Business Friendly Coffee project of Liberia.
Before the Liberian civil war, the country was a major producer and exporter of cocoa and coffee products.
But, since the end of the war, the coffee sector in particularly has been dormant.
With support from the EU, the project is working to reactivate the coffee sector to improve the livelihood of producers.
The project has trained farmers on harvest and post-harvest losses, stumping and pruning of old coffee farms, the propagation of Robusta and Liberia coffee as well as facilitated regional visits to coffee producing counties.
ITC and FUNL are working in collaboration with the CDA and the Ministry of Agriculture to establish three coffee cooperatives in Bong, Nimba and Lofa counties. Report by Augustine Octavius.