Published: October 26, 2026
MONROVIA – Agriculture Minister J. Alexander Nuetah says the Agriculture Ministry will open its rice contracts and vendor records to journalists. He wants to disprove an allegation by Nimba County District 5 Rep. Kortor Sehwongbay Kwagrue that the ministry is importing rice from China and repackaging it as Liberian-grown.
By Gibson Gee
Nuetah denied the allegation and challenged Kwagrue to produce evidence. He said the rice the government is promoting under local brands comes from Liberian farmers and is milled by Liberian processors.
“We are not in the business of selling rice. Why should we be interested in repackaging rice for the public?” Nuetah told journalists.
He invited reporters to check the ministry’s suppliers directly. “You can ask for our vendor registry. They have the contracts we signed this year. Take the contact information, call each and every one of them,” he said.
Nuetah said the ministry began buying paddy rice from local farmers after they repeatedly complained that they had no reliable market for their harvest. The ministry buys the paddy and contracts local processors to mill and package it, he said.
He named several brands he said are produced locally: Gbedin Rice and Dan Rice from Nimba County, Selma Rice and Foya Queen from Lofa County, and I Love Liberian Rice, produced by CHAP in Montserrado County. He identified Mohamed Kamara, a processor in Foya, Lofa County, as one of the contracted processors.
Nuetah said the Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project, or STAR-P, has supplied about 500,000 empty branded bags to local processors to improve how Liberian rice is packaged and marketed. He said the government’s push to make local rice look better may have fed suspicion about where it comes from.
“The quality of the rice that our people produce, our processors, is equally as good as the imported rice,” he said.
He said a major rice importer recently asked for 1,000 bags of Liberian rice, which he cited as evidence of growing commercial demand.
Nuetah also rejected allegations about the ministry’s purchase of 200 cattle, including for Grand Kru County. He denied any personal or business relationship with the contractor and said he took no direct part in the procurement, which he said followed the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission process.
“I don’t get involved with processes. The procurement director is there,” he said.
He said cattle were delivered to the Central Agricultural Research Institute and to Grand Kru County. He acknowledged that 24 animals died and said the contractor accepted responsibility and replaced them. He said county authorities later received two more batches of 40 cattle delivered to Grand Kru County.
Nuetah denied an allegation that cattle meant for Grand Kru County were diverted to a community linked to his wife’s family.
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