Published: May 22, 2026
MONROVIA — The Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority has more than doubled its institutional revenue, secured 10 new strategic partners and expanded its regulatory mandate to cover oil palm and rubber, Acting Director General Dan T. Saryee Sr. said Tuesday, describing a turnaround at an agency he said had zero active partners when the current leadership took office in June.
Speaking at the regular press briefing hosted by the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism, Saryee said LACRA’s revenue grew from approximately $934,445 in 2024 to $2,218,048 in 2025, a jump he attributed to stronger compliance systems, expanded licensing activities, improved monitoring of commodity movements and intensified market formalization nationwide.
“To understand how far we have come, we must look at where we started,” Saryee said. “Upon assuming office in June, we met an institution with zero active partners. Even those who had previously supported LACRA had completely disengaged.”
Beyond the financial gains, Saryee said the authority has undergone a structural transformation, evolving from a single-commodity regulator focused on cocoa and coffee into a diversified institution now actively overseeing Liberia’s oil palm and rubber industries as well. For the first time since the institution’s establishment, he said, LACRA has secured reliable internet connectivity at its headquarters and begun transitioning its financial, administrative and operational systems to full digitization.
On infrastructure, Saryee said the authority completed renovations at its regional office in Voinjama, Lofa County, and fully rehabilitated one of its six major warehouses, with additional construction and rehabilitation projects planned for Bong, Nimba and Grand Gedeh counties in the coming months. LACRA is also engaging the Liberia Agriculture Companies Association, which represents major agricultural concessionaires, to strengthen cooperation and enforcement within the oil palm and rubber sectors.
The most urgent challenge on the authority’s horizon, Saryee said, is the European Union Deforestation Regulation compliance deadline of December 2026. The regulation requires that commodities exported to the European market be traceable to deforestation-free land, and failure to meet the standard would effectively lock Liberian agricultural exports out of one of the world’s largest markets.
“EUDR is a strict global mandate for commodity movement,” he warned. “It is imperative that Liberia meets this deadline; otherwise, our agricultural commodities will be locked out of the global market.”
To address the requirement, LACRA has developed a proprietary farm-mapping and traceability platform designed to register an estimated 350,000 farmers across Liberia’s cocoa, coffee, oil palm and rubber sectors, ensuring that exports remain competitive and compliant in international markets.
Saryee also announced a strengthened operational agreement with the Liberia Revenue Authority aimed at easing barriers affecting domestic cocoa transportation, describing it as an important step toward balancing enforcement with market efficiency and farmer access.
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