The Produce Monitoring Board (PMB) has concluded a high-level engagement with Produce exporters in Kenema, agreeing a set of actions to strengthen market integrity, improve quality, accelerate traceability and enhance the competitiveness of Sierra Leone’s produce sector.
The engagement brought together PMB, produce exporters and representatives of the Sierra Leone Cocoa Exporters Council (SLCEC), to discuss critical issues on regulatory modernization, export competitiveness and operational constraints affecting the produce sector.
Key actions include strengthening quality controls; readiness for compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) – accelerating farm geolocation, producer registration and digital traceability; reinforcing compliance with the PMB’s Indicative Price and market regulations; and strengthening structured engagements between the PMB and sector stakeholders including farmers, exporters and processors.
The PMB also advanced consultations on the restructuring of produce licensing fees and provided an update on the proposed Produce Sustainability and Development Act (PSDA). The proposed fee restructuring seeks to establish a more modern and proportionate licensing regime, for principal buying agents, sub-agents, local buying dealers, indigenous/small-scale and national/large-scale exporters.
Exporters accepted the restructured licensing fee regime, provided that it is matched by stronger, responsive and value-adding regulatory services.
The engagement session concluded with a statement from the Executive Chairman, PMB, Mr. Raymond Bob Katta:
“We are shifting the paradigm. Our exporters must not be mere consumers of regulation; they must be co-producers of the standards, systems and market conditions that will make Sierra Leone’s produce sector globally competitive.”
PMB will continue high-level engagements on the request for a waiver on jute bags, engage the relevant sector leads to address the operational constraints at the Water Quay, and review the exporters’ inputs on the revised licensing regime and the proposed PSDA legislation. These inputswill inform the Board’s final recommendations on the licensing fee regime and the proposed PSDA legislation, True leadership is not measured only by the results we achieve, but also by the people we develop along the way.
