Monrovia, Liberia – Market women at “Saturday Market” in St. Paul Bridge say rising transport costs are driving up prices and reducing daily profits, making business slower and more difficult.
In Liberia, farm produce, including cassava, plantain, bananas, eddoes, potatoes, red oil and pepper, amongst others, as well as dried meat and fish, are transported from counties like Nimba, Lofa, Bong, and Grand Cape Mount and brought to Monrovia to be sold through commercial vehicles plying those routes.
This process forms the production, distribution, and consumption chain of organic food products from farm to market.
For market women, transporting goods from the interior to the city is costly and time-consuming because high transport fares and poor road conditions impede vehicle movement and sometimes leave goods to spoil along the road.
They claimed that commercial drivers charge huge amounts to transport goods from the counties to Monrovia on the grounds that gasoline and diesel prices have increased.
“The transportation is high up; yesterday I paid over LRD 84,000 to transport my plantain and bananas from Karnplay, Nimba County, to Monrovia,” Ma Amie, Gobba Chop Leader at Saturday Market said.
Comfort Segbeh, a banana seller, also narrated that her aunt paid LRD 15,800 to transport 33 heads of bananas and LRD 6,000 for an individual per trip from Karnplay, Nimba County, bringing the total expenditure to LRD 21,800.
She told the Liberian Business Hour that commercial drivers charge LRD 500 per three heads of banana.
“We are paying five hundred per three counting of banana. We can hardly make a profit from what we sell because of the high transportation cost,” Comfort emphasized.
The testimonies from the market women reflect their daily constraints and struggles to ensure their goods reach the market despite the many challenges along the way, and present a harsh reality faced during the production, distribution, and consumption processes.
These constraints often trickle down to commodity prices in the Liberian market as customers, considered the final consumers, come in to buy.
Marketers’ profits are sometimes cut to accommodate customers who complain about price changes every other market day and need to make ends meet for their families.
“Before, some of us used to join 100,000 dollars susu as a result of the profit we used to make, but now the case is different, so we are just here because we don’t want to sit home doing nothing,” Ma Amie explained.
“This market now we are not looking for profit because transportation absorbs everything. I spent 46,000 on the plantain and banana per trip and have only gotten 42,000, which was used to pay sell pay,” Comfort said.
A small head of banana sells for LRD 1,500, while a bigger head is priced around LRD 3,000 to 4,000.
In addition, a June 2026 WFP Liberia Market Price Monitoring Bulletin indicates a moderate increase in the price of palm oil, also known as Red Oil, from L$1,014 per gallon in June 2025 to L$1,140 in June 2026 due to continued pressure from transportation costs and local supply constraints.
Kaidiatu Kamara, a Palm Oil seller at Saturday Market, also told our reporter that a gallon of palm oil now sells for L$1,300, while the five-gallon is priced at L$5,000, largely due to seasonal production and transportation costs.
“One gallon of oil we are selling it for L$1,300, but this big one (five-gallon container) is L$5,000. If someone begs and brings L$4,800 or L$4,900, I will hold it,” Kamara said.
Price Clash With Customers
Fluctuating and arbitrary commodity prices cause disagreements between sellers and buyers in Liberia’s marketplaces.
According to a 2024 Liberia Country Commercial Guide published by the International Trade Administration and prepared by the US Commerce Department, most prices in Liberia are market-driven.
This means that, although the Ministry of Commerce and Industry monitors and sets price ceilings for some commodities, including rice and cement, market forces determine commodity prices, especially for soft commodities.
For the market women at Saturday Market, production cost, which includes expenses related to extracting, farming, or transporting commodities, is pivotal to determining the prices of goods.
According to them, they carefully consider the expenses incurred on commodities when setting prices to make a profit and sustain their businesses.
“I can’t spend a huge amount of money on transportation, ground fees, and other expenses, then sell my market L$100 to please customers,” Ma Amie stressed.
Comfort Segbeh also said, “Sometimes when you go in the bush, the way they will bring the market, you buy it, that’s how you sell it depending on how much you spent.”
Market Women Appeal To Government
The market women are appealing to the Government of Liberia to work alongside commercial drivers to reduce the transport fares, noting that bulk of their profits are eaten up by transportation costs.
They emphasized that reducing transportation costs will eventually lower market prices.
“I am calling on the government to work on the transportation cost with the drivers because we used to pay L$300 per counting for a trip, but now we are paying L$500 and sometimes L$550 if finding a car becomes difficult,” Comfort noted.
Ma Amie explained that, because they send their children to school and buy household provisions, high transportation costs make it hard for businesswomen to support their families.
