As Liberia revamps its coffee subsector to boost production and improve the livelihoods of producers, the importance of transforming farming groups into cooperatives cannot be overstated, experts have said.
Coffee cooperatives are member-owned organizations formed by smallholder coffee growers to improve market access, reduce costs, and secure better prices for their beans. They do this by pooling their resources, expertise, and bargaining power to achieve economic benefits and invest in quality improvement and build direct relationships with buyers, experts said.
Under the EU-funded ACP coffee program for Liberia, the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) is collaborating with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Farmers Union Network of Liberia (FUNL) to transform farming groups into cooperatives.
Although, market remains a serious challenge for the local value chain members, stakeholders believe that bringing the farmers together as cooperatives is pivotal to overcoming that challenge.
Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines
This, stakeholders also said, cooperative establishment will help to reposition the country on the global coffee market, especially when it comes to introducing coffee Liberica, a specialty or native coffee variety.
The training exercise was separately facilitated by CDA experts in the coffee-producing regions, Bong, Nimba, Lofa, Bomi and Montserrado counties. Some of the topics shared by the experts include the importance of cooperative establishment, principles of cooperatives, and leadership structure
Speaking to the Daily Observer at the end of one of the training sessions, the Assistant Registrar for Montserrado County, Diana Glay said that it is the government's mandate for farmers to transform themselves into a cooperative.
"It is a must that farmers become members of cooperatives because it will help to access resources from the government and partners," she stated.
According to her, the issue of farmers transforming into a cooperative is being unstrained into the country's national agricultural development plan.
Glay said the training also includes a feasibility study on the existence of farms owned by the farmers.
She mentioned that the CDA has transformed more farming groups into cooperatives, and they are doing an assessment to have them certified.
Under the Alliance for Action (A4A), ITC is working with government partners like the CDA to transform agricultural value chains and promote sustainable food production by honoring the value that smallholder farmers and SMEs contribute to the agri food value chain.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By statutory mandate, the CDA is the legal, technical, educational, and overall administrative regulatory arm of the Government of Liberia, responsible for all cooperative activities in Liberia.
