Agriculture

Oil Palm

Oil palm is native to Liberia and grows abundantly across the country, given Liberia’s optimal climate. Half of Liberia’s palm oil is produced by 30,000 women and men on small farms, harvested from forests where it grows naturally. The other half is produced in some 70,000 hectares of oil palm plantations, established in the 1970s. In 2013 Liberia produced 176,000 tons of palm fruit and 49,000 tons of crude palm oil. In addition, Liberia has secured the investment of four large international firms who are concessioned to develop an additional 870,000 hectares of oil palm. This makes Liberia the perfect place to invest in the processing of crude palm oil into refined oil for cooking, soaps and cosmetics, food processing, mulch, fertilizer, animal feed and bio-fuel. As a member of ECOWAS, Liberia provides the optimal location to supply oil palm products to West African countries, where demand is burgeoning. Apart from Liberia, countries like Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso all register a shortage of oil palm products.

Rice

Rice is Liberia’s staple food, meaning a guaranteed market for investors in high quality and high yielding rice farming and processing. Liberia consumes 570,000 tons of rice every year, with the average Liberian consuming 120 kg per year compared to 96 kg per year in Senegal, 53 kg per year in Ghana and 33kg in Nigeria. However, there is scope for further market growth, as the average Sierra Leonean consumes double the average Liberian. Liberia has significant scope to double yields and triple the amount of land that is harvested — currently 230,000 hectares is harvested, but this can increase to at least 600,000 hectares, particularly if combined with the farming of fish and horticulture.

Liberia thus provides a large and growing market opportunity for investors in the rice value chain, particularly input provision, production and processing. Notably, there is a large market opportunity for investors in the Nerica variety planted in irrigated or non-irrigated swamplands. There is also a large business opportunity in the supply of farm inputs and technology, hulling and milling, transportation and processing into high quality rice or products such as cereal bars, rice crackers and rice starch. Rice bran is extensively used as fish feed in Liberia and can also be processed by the pharmaceutical industry.

Marine Fish

Why invest in marine fi sheries in Liberia? Liberia’s coastline and continental shelf off ers 20,000 sq km of fi shing ground. Only around 8,000 tons of marine fi sh are currently produced per year. Yet Liberia consumes 23,800 tons. Consequently, there is a large potential to increase production. The government is investing in fi sh landing, storage and processing infrastructure and is streamlining investment regulations in the sector. With the impending completion of large energy infrastructure projects, it will be soon cheaper to process fi sh in Liberia than in Nigeria, Senegal or Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, with the completion of major road projects, such as the road from Monrovia to Nimba on the Guinean border, there is the potential to supply fi sh to the water-scarce areas of West
Africa, such as eastern Guinea.

Cassava

Why Invest in Cassava Inputs and Processing in Liberia? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, cassava is the third most important source of calories in the tropics, after rice and corn. In Liberia, cassava is the second most important food crop. It is grown throughout the country, although the area covered may vary considerably for diff erent counties. Liberia provides a strong basis for investors in the cassava value chain, such as gari, cassava fl our, high quality cassava starches and adhesives.