The Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA), in its capacity as Chairman of the National Agriculture Traceability Steering Committee, has announced the convening of a major national stakeholders’ session scheduled for Thursday, June 4 at D’Calabash Hotel, Congo Town, outside Monrovia.
The session will bring together senior representatives of the Government of Liberia, the National Legislature, development partners, international organizations, and the private sector to advance an urgent national agenda: achieving compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) before the hard deadline of 31 December 2026.
The session represents one of the most consequential gatherings in Liberia’s recent agricultural history — a critical opportunity for the nation’s key institutions to move beyond discussion and commit to the concrete, coordinated actions needed to protect Liberia’s access to European commodity markets and safeguard the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholder farming families.
What Is The EUDR and Why Does It Matter To Liberia?
Enacted in 2023, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EU Regulation 2023/1115) is one of the most far-reaching trade and environmental laws in recent history.
It prohibits the placement of certain agricultural commodities on the EU market unless operators can demonstrate, through verifiable due diligence and geolocated data, that those commodities were produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation or forest degradation after 31 December 2020.
For Liberia, the stakes are enormous. Cocoa, coffee, and rubber — three of Liberia’s most important agricultural export commodities — are explicitly covered by the EUDR. The European Union is Liberia’s primary destination for these exports, and non-compliance with the regulation would effectively close that market to Liberian producers.
The consequences of failing to meet the EUDR deadline would be swift and severe: loss of EU market access for cocoa, coffee, and rubber; a sharp decline in incomes for smallholder farmers who depend on these crops; reduced national foreign exchange earnings; contraction of the agricultural sector; and reputational damage to Liberia’s standing as a responsible forest and agriculture governance actor on the international stage.
At the centre of Liberia’s response is the National Agriculture Traceability System (NATS) — a comprehensive digital and institutional framework designed to register farmers, geolocate agricultural plots, document deforestation-free land use, and generate the supply-chain due diligence documentation required for EUDR compliance. Building this system requires resources, expertise, political will, and the active cooperation of every institution represented at the 4 June session.
The National Agriculture Traceability Steering Committee
The National Agriculture Traceability Steering Committee (NATSC) was established under the chairmanship of LACRA as the central multi-stakeholder governance body responsible for steering Liberia’s national response to the EUDR. The Committee has already convened twice — in 2025 and in January 2026 — and has built significant momentum in terms of institutional alignment, technical scoping, and roadmap development.
The June 4 session marks a pivotal escalation of the Committee’s work. Rather than a routine committee meeting, it is designed as a high-level national mobilization session — an occasion for stakeholders to make public, documented commitments to the actions, resources, and cooperation needed to drive EUDR compliance across all relevant sectors of government and the economy.
The Steering Committee brings together all institutions with a direct role in agriculture, land, forestry, environment, data, and rural development under a single coordinated structure. LACRA chairs the Committee and serves as its Secretariat, coordinating the work of the following member institutions:
About The June 4 Session: What Will Happen
The June 4 National Stakeholders’ Session is designed to achieve several concrete outcomes that will directly accelerate Liberia’s path to EUDR compliance. It is not a ceremonial gathering. It is a working session with a clear mandate and measurable deliverables.
Chief among its objectives is the adoption of the Monrovia Resolution — a landmark multi-stakeholder declaration that will commit all participating institutions to specific strategies and actions in the following areas:
- Engaging internationally accredited technical institutions with proven expertise in building national agricultural traceability systems, to lead the design and deployment of Liberia’s NATS under the oversight of LACRA;
- Launching a coordinated fundraising strategy to mobilize public and private resources, bilateral and multilateral donor funding, and private sector contributions into a dedicated EUDR Compliance Fund;
- Formally committing all Steering Committee member institutions to structured inter-agency cooperation, data sharing, and joint implementation activities through signed Memoranda of Understanding;
- Launching a National EUDR Awareness and Farmer Preparedness Campaign to inform, educate, and mobilize Liberia’s cocoa, coffee, and rubber farming communities in all counties;
- Calling for the highest levels of political will — including a Presidential Directive mandating full government cooperation — and sustaining active diplomatic engagement with the European Union;
- Establishing an accountability framework with bi-monthly institutional progress reporting and quarterly public compliance status updates.
Special Invitees
In addition to the full membership of the National Agriculture Traceability Steering Committee, the June 4 session will be attended by a number of high-level special invitees whose involvement reflects the broad national and international significance of Liberia’s EUDR compliance agenda:
- International Finance Corporation (IFC) — a key financial and technical partner that has previously supported LACRA’s traceability agenda;
- Ministry of Local Government — whose role in community-level governance and territorial administration is essential to farmer registration and land documentation;
- United Nations Development Programme — with broad capacity building and governance support expertise;
- European Union Delegation to Liberia — whose presence signals the EU’s engagement with Liberia’s compliance journey and opens a direct channel for diplomatic dialogue;
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) — with extensive technical expertise in agricultural systems, food security, and smallholder development.
A Message to Liberia’s Farmers
LACRA wishes to speak directly to the farmers of Liberia — the men and women who grow the cocoa, coffee, and rubber that sustain their families and contribute to this nation’s economy.
The EUDR is a new rule from Europe, but it concerns you directly.
Starting 31 December 2026, cocoa, coffee, and rubber that cannot be traced to specific, verified plots of land — and shown not to have come from deforested areas — will no longer be accepted in European markets. This affects the price you receive for your crops and whether your produce can be sold internationally at all.
LACRA and its partners are working urgently to put in place a national system that will register you, document your farm, and certify your produce as EUDR-compliant. But this process requires your participation, your cooperation, and your trust. In the coming weeks and months, LACRA will be reaching out to farming communities across Liberia through radio broadcasts, community meetings, and local extension officers to explain what the EUDR means, what you need to do, and how you will be supported.
We ask for your patience, your engagement, and your partnership. Liberia’s farmers are the reason for this work — and you will be the first to benefit from a successful outcome.
Note To Media And Journalists
LACRA warmly welcomes the coverage of this session by the national and international press. The free and responsible reporting of this initiative is itself a public service — helping to inform farmers, investors, and international partners about Liberia’s commitment to meeting its EUDR obligations.
Members of the media are invited to attend the June 4 session for the opening remarks and press opportunity. A media briefing will be held following the opening session. Accredited journalists and broadcasters wishing to attend are requested to register in advance with the LACRA Communications Office at the contact details below.
LACRA also calls on all national media houses — print, broadcast, and digital — to provide consistent and prominent public interest coverage of the EUDR compliance process in the months ahead, to ensure that Liberian citizens, especially in farming communities, are informed of developments, timelines, and actions they are required to take.
ABOUT LACRA
The Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA) is the principal government agency responsible for the regulation, standardization, and development of agricultural commodities in Liberia. Established under the Government of Liberia, LACRA oversees the quality, certification, and trade compliance of key export commodities including cocoa, coffee, and rubber. In its role as Chairman of the National Agriculture Traceability Steering Committee, LACRA leads Liberia’s national response to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the development of the National Agriculture Traceability System (NATS).
