LAVCA Requests Duty Free For Agriculture Imports -Says Waiver of Duty Critical to Boosting Sector

MONROVIA – What is to be a litmus test to the commitment of the Joseph Boakai administration in delivering on its ARREST flagship development agenda, which begins with Agriculture, is thrown on the horizon. Despite the Liberia’s huge potential to feed itself and to main a great agriculture economy, the programs put into place by governments in the past in order to realize this effort has from time immemorial been saddled by mere rhetoric and slogans. Whether the incumbent government will make a difference is subject of public debate for now. But what is likely to shed some light on the debate is the petition to the government by a group of Liberian farmers, called LAVCA, seeking waiver of taxes or duty free for agriculture imports—something they believe will turn the tide. Will Government heed or reject the request? The Analyst reports.

The Liberia Agriculture Value Chain Actors, LAVCA, has called on the Government of Liberia to institute a duty waiver policy on all agriculture imports into Liberia, over the next five years.

LAVCA is an umbrella organization of all value chain actors organized to help  empower all agriculture value chain actors with the capacity required to improve financing, policy making, advocacy, production, aggregation, transportation, processing, packaging and marketing capacities.

In a press release issued yesterday, the Liberia Agriculture Value Chain Actors said in a letter addressed to the Minister of Agriculture that “LAVCA firmly believes that granting duty-free privileges on agricultural imports is a critical step towards empowering the farmers and other value chain actors, towards the achievement of food security and sustainable economic growth in Liberia.

LAVCA further said that the granting of duty-free privileges on agricultural imports aligns closely with the President’s agricultural vision and the goals outlined in the ARREST agenda.

Meanwhile, LAVCA has extolled the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Agriculture for additional support to the cassava sector.

According to the release, the Ministry is supporting the cultivation of eight hundred acres or three hundred twenty hectares of land in four cassava belt counties. The counties include Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Cape Mount and Bong.

The LAVCA release further said that the cultivation exercise will boost cassava production and serves as a sustained source of raw materials for processing centers.

The release indicates that more than a dozen processing centers have been constructed across Liberia, with the organization “calling on all value chain actors, the Government of Liberia and international partners to provide technical and financial support to the agriculture sector”.