Adding value as a niche player: Developing a ‘tree-to-bar’ strategy for Liberia’s cocoa industry

This policy brief addresses the extent to which actors in Liberia’s cocoa industry can develop and execute a tree-to-bar strategy.  It is derived from the 2022 study Regional Collaboration on Overcoming Binding Constraints on the Growth of Liberia’s Cocoa Value Chain, produced by ACET with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a subsequent policy dialogue with stakeholders in Liberia’s cocoa industry.

Key Messages

• Liberia is a small producer of cocoa with a limited impact on the cocoa commodity market. At the same time, Liberia’s cocoa sector is geared toward the export of raw cocoa beans with little focus on quality and traceability. The result is that Liberian cocoa beans are discounted on the international market.
• Currently, Liberia captures a small share of the potential value of cocoa.
• A viable strategy for Liberia’s cocoa is to become a niche player under a tree-to-bar strategy. This calls for upgrading local players, linking manufacturers to global artisanal chocolatiers, and linking up with international branding companies.
• Liberia’s cocoa industry would benefit greatly from government efforts to improve productivity, quality, governance, and traceability of cocoa beans. It would also benefit from a strong marketing and communications strategy and an upgraded private sector.
• For these benefits to occur, the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) and the Liberian Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (LACRA) will need to play a more prominent role in developing the proposed value chain strategy. Specifically:
  • CDA could foster entrepreneurship by supporting more cooperatives that can build international linkages, and even integrate and produce chocolate.
  • LACRA will need greater interventions in quality control, marketing, branding, and developing linkages.
• However, CDA and LACRA face budgetary constraints that require urgent attention. One way to address the situation is to ask development partners to provide direct support instead of the current approach of funding their own programs in the sector. Currently, Liberia’s cocoa sector is geared toward the export of raw cocoa beans with little focus on quality and value addition, leading to minimal value capture