DG Sankolo Pays Courtesy Visit To Buchana Port
On today October 17, 2024 our distinguished Director General honorable Christpher D. Sankolo paid a courtesy visit to the Manager of the Port of Buchana former Senator Jonathan Kaipay.
The visit was intended to brief honorable Kaipay about LACRA’s recent policy to increase its royalty on cocoa export, a decision that is making some unscrupulous traders in the sector to smuggle the commodity out of Liberia using various entry point.
During the visit, DG Sankolo called on the Buchana Port Manager to help LACRA by ensuring cocoa illegally brought to the port is confiscated and trader arrested. He noted” our board recently took a decision to increase royalty to enable LACRA decentralize its activities across the country. Part of our mandate according to DG Sankolo is to promote production which will entails establishing cocoa nurseries and distributing seedings, but we have not been able to perform such responsibility due to low budget.
But the LACRA Director General is hopeful that with the increment in royalty, the institution can raise the needed revenue to establish cocoa nurseries across the Country, provide seedings to farmers, train more staffs and deploy them at various entry points.
For the short term, honorable Sankolo said LACRA will soon begin airing radio promos and planting billboards across the country to educate famers about processes that lead to getting premium cocoa beans. In response, honorable Kaipay told DG Sankolo that there hasn’t been any entry of cocoa container within the Port of Buchana but will watch out for any illegal entry, promising to collaborate with LACRA to ensure the right thing is done.
He noted’’ the only commodity that passes here legally is oil palm mainly from equatorial oil palm and Golden Veroleum”. Senator Kaipay who himself is a cocoa farmer however called on LACRA to deploy staff in the area to serve as eye for the entity. We will work together he concluded.
