In Summary:
- Former Assistant Minister for Development Planning at the Ministry of Finance Benedict Kolubah claimed in a radio interview that Cocoa export from Liberia did not reach a million dollar
- We have reviewed relevant sources to verify his statement
- We found that the data he relied upon to make the assertion is mostly correct, but annual Cocoa export in the same year he mentioned was about US$ 4 million.
On March 10, Mr. Benedict Kolubah former Assistant Minister for Development Planning at the Ministry of Finance, appeared in an OK FM interview and claimed that Cocoa exports did not reach a million dollar in 2023. He referenced a LISGIS report.
Mr. Kolubah made the claim while discussing the lapses in the government’s national development plan, Liberia’s trade deficit, and the nation’s heavy reliance on the importation of goods and services.
Claim
Said Mr. Kolubah: “Cocoa export is just about US$0.5 million dollars (US$500,000); Cocoa export is not even a million dollar, according to the LISGIS report”.
Rating Justification
To fact-check this claim we reached out to Mr. Kolubah to provide details about the LISGIS report he mentioned. In his reply, he said he was comparing the Central Bank of Liberia Monthly Economic Review for December 2023 and the LISGIS Extended Trade Annual Report.
The CBL Monthly Economic Review for December 2023 did show that export earnings from Cocoa for December 2023 was 0.88 million or US$ 880,000.
Page 57 of the CBL 2023 Annual report shows a chart of Liberia’s balance of payment for 2023 which shows that Cocoa Beans annual export earnings in 2023 was US$4 million.
Also, we reviewed the LISGIS website and found the Extended Trade Annual Report. The most recent report available is for 2021 which was released in 2022.
The report on page 6 shows that Cocoa shells, husks, skins, and other cocoa waste accounted for US$4, 525, 000 while Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted export earnings was US$2,325,549.22.
Conclusion
Based on this, we conclude that Mr. Kolubah’s claim that Cocoa exports did not reach a million is mostly correct based on the document he relied on.
However, his reliance on a December 2023 report shows export earnings for Cocoa were only in that month and not the entire year.
The annual CBL report shows that the annual export earnings for Cocoa in 2023 was US$4 million which Mr. Kolubah did not mention.
