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By Jeff Massah
For Josephine George Francis, coffee is more than an agricultural commodity. It represents an opportunity to rebuild rural livelihoods, create jobs, empower women and young people, and reposition agriculture as a stronger engine of Liberia’s economic transformation.
Her interest in agriculture is not new. A former Representative of Montserrado County and former Superintendent, Francis has continued to champion agricultural development across different stages of her public and professional life. Today, as Chief Executive Officer of AJAY Coffee and President of the Farmer Union Network of Liberia, she is becoming an increasingly prominent voice in efforts to revive Liberia’s coffee industry.
For Francis, reviving coffee is not simply about bringing an old agricultural tradition back to life. It is about building a modern, commercially viable industry that can create opportunities for farmers, entrepreneurs, young professionals and rural communities.
At the core of her vision is Coffee Liberica, a coffee variety that she believes can play an important role in Liberia’s renewed ambitions for the sector. With Liberia’s historical connection to Liberica coffee, Francis sees an opportunity to build on that heritage while positioning the crop for a new generation of farmers and consumers.
But reviving the sector will require more than planting trees.
It will require a fundamental shift in how Liberians understand the coffee business.
Francis is therefore encouraging young people and women to look beyond coffee farming and explore the wider opportunities that exist across the value chain. From seedling production and farm management to processing, quality control, packaging, transportation, branding, marketing and export, she argues that coffee can become a platform for entrepreneurship and employment.
This value-chain approach is particularly significant for Liberia, where agriculture remains central to the livelihoods of rural households, while unemployment and limited economic opportunities continue to challenge many young people.
A vibrant coffee industry could generate opportunities far beyond the farm gate. Nursery operators can produce seedlings. Farmers can establish commercial plantations. Young entrepreneurs can provide transportation and logistics services. Small businesses can invest in processing and packaging. Marketers can develop Liberian coffee brands, while exporters can connect locally produced coffee to regional and international markets.
The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to produce more coffee, but to capture more value from coffee inside Liberia.
“Young people are the future of Liberia’s coffee value chain. By empowering them with practical skills and connecting them to opportunities, we can tackle unemployment, create sustainable livelihoods and contribute to the growth of our economy,” Francis said recently at the training for young farmers and agriculture students at ARJAY farm situated in rural Montserrado County.
Her emphasis on young people is deliberate. Liberia’s coffee revival will ultimately depend on whether a new generation sees agriculture as a viable business rather than an activity associated primarily with subsistence farming.
For many young Liberians, farming has traditionally been perceived as physically demanding, low-income work with limited prospects for upward mobility. Francis is challenging that perception by promoting coffee as an enterprise that can combine farming with technology, entrepreneurship, processing, branding and access to markets.
As President of the Farmer Union Network of Liberia, she has advocated for greater participation of women in agricultural development. In the coffee sector, that means creating opportunities for women not only as farmers but also as business owners, processors, traders, service providers and investors.
This matters because agricultural value chains can often leave primary producers, particularly women, with a relatively small share of the final value of a product. When farmers have access to processing, market information, finance and stronger producer organizations, they are better positioned to negotiate markets and retain more income.
Francis’ vision is therefore about moving women and young farmers from being participants in the coffee economy to becoming owners and drivers of the coffee business.
The renewed attention to coffee presents an opportunity to rethink the sector from production to consumption. Increased production alone will not guarantee success. Farmers will need quality planting materials, technical support, access to finance, reliable markets and appropriate post-harvest technologies.
If Liberia produces coffee but exports it primarily in raw or minimally processed form, much of the potential economic value will continue to be captured elsewhere. Developing local processing, roasting, packaging, and branding could allow Liberian businesses to participate in higher-value segments of the industry.
That is why Francis believes young entrepreneurs should begin looking at coffee as an entire ecosystem.
“The opportunities are not only on the farm,” she emphasizes. “There are businesses to be created around processing, packaging, transportation, marketing and export.”
This perspective could help transform the narrative around Liberia’s agricultural sector, from one focused largely on production to one that emphasizes value addition, entrepreneurship and market competitiveness.
A growing coffee industry can stimulate demand for agricultural inputs, transportation, storage, processing equipment, packaging materials, financial services and market information. It can also contribute to the development of rural economies by creating new businesses around farming communities.
For young people, this could mean employment and entrepreneurship opportunities without having to migrate to Monrovia in search of limited jobs.
For women, it could create new pathways to income and economic independence.
For farmers, it could provide an additional commercial crop and potentially diversify household income.
And for Liberia, it could create another agricultural commodity with the potential to generate foreign exchange and strengthen the country’s position in regional and international markets.
But realizing this potential will require coordinated action. The private sector will need to invest. Government will need to provide an enabling policy and regulatory environment. Development partners can support research, extension, finance and market development. Farmer organizations will need to strengthen their members’ capacity to produce consistently and meet market requirements.
The challenge is significant. Coffee trees take time to mature, farmers need sustained support, and markets demand consistency in quality and supply. The revival of the sector will therefore require patience, long-term investment and strong coordination among stakeholders.
As Liberia renews its focus on coffee, voices like Francis’ are helping to broaden the conversation from agriculture to agribusiness, from production to value addition, and from farming to wealth creation.
Her vision ultimately rests on a simple but powerful idea: coffee should not only be something Liberia grows; it should be an industry that Liberia builds.
And for Josephine George Francis “Mama Coffee”, that future begins with empowering the people who will carry Liberia’s coffee story into the next generation.
