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— With the EU’s GI market valued at €74.76 billion in 2022, Liberia stands to gain significantly by entering this lucrative space.
Can Liberia’s Brown Country Rice open a new frontier of economic growth for the country?
The answer is yes and lies in the simple concept of Geographical Indications (GIs), a unique form of intellectual property that links a product’s reputation and exceptional qualities to its place of origin.
Think of Italy’s Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and France’s Champagne. These iconic products are the jewels of extravagant menus, as their GI status gives them an exclusive edge to command premium prices—fetching billions in revenue and driving economic growth.
The Parmigiano-Reggiano industry, for instance, contributes over €2 billion annually to the Italian economy, while Champagne adds more than €5 billion to the French economy annually.
Liberia’s Brown Country Rice has similar potential to the GI-protected products of Italy and France, as it is a distinct and high-quality agricultural product with an irreplaceable connection to central Liberia. However, the lack of GI protection means Liberia is losing millions of dollars in revenue, as GI guarantees products unique identity and authenticity, making it an easy sell. The brown rice is a whole grain that is more nutritious than white rice and can help with weight management and blood sugar levels.
According to Jamus Bannah, an expert on intellectual property matters, with GI protection, Country Brown rice has the potential to become a lucrative agricultural export, considering the rice’s “proven health benefits,” which make it appealing to health-conscious consumers in Europe, North America, and Asia.
“The GI protections would, therefore, guarantee the rice’s unique characteristics and product authenticity, fetching premium prices in the process and benefiting the country holistically,” says Ms. Bannah, whose master’s degree dissertation focuses on Liberia’s GI potential.
The core economic impact of GIs lies in their ability to command higher prices for products with recognized origin-based qualities. According to the European Commission, the sales values of GI products on average double ‘those for similar products without GI protection.’
In 2020, the European Commission reported that its GI product market had a sales value of €74.76 billion, with over 20% of this amount resulting from exports outside the EU.
What, then, is GI that makes it economically important?
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, GI is a sign identifying a good as having originated from a specific geographical area and possessing a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic essentially attributable to that geographical origin.
In other words, GI protection is meant to identify goods whose quality, reputation, or other characteristics are inherently linked to their geographic origin. Ethiopia’s Harrar, Jimma, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe coffees, Thailand’s Jasmine Rice, Cameroon’s Penja Pepper, and Morocco’s Argan Oil are all examples of GI products commanding higher prices, as their protection status reduces the risk of imitation and guarantees authenticity.
According to the International Coffee Organization, the price of Ethiopia’s specialty coffees—Harrar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe—has risen by as much as 30% in the years following their GI protection, resulting in higher prices compared to non-GI coffees.
In 2023 alone, the Ethiopian Press Agency reported that coffee exports earned the country US$1.43 billion, while in Morocco, its GI-protected Argan Oil in 2019 had a market value of US$84 million. By 2025, the Argan Oil market is projected to reach US$155 million, according to Grand View Research. Similarly, in 2017, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OA, PI) reported that the farm-gate price of Penja Pepper, Africa’s first GI-protected spice, rose by 70% in the years following its protection.
As studies have shown, the economic importance of GIs has skyrocketed, with 58,600 protected GIs now in existence, creating an industry today that is worth over US$100 billion (including the EU market value of €74.76 billion). According to WIPO, of the 58,600 GIs in force, upper middle-income economies accounted for 52.2% of the world’s total, followed by high-income economies (42.9%), lower-middle-income economies (4.8%), and low-income economies (0.1%).
In terms of regional distribution, Europe had the most GIs in force, amounting to 52.5%, followed by Asia (39.5%), Oceania (3.6%), North America (2.8%), Latin America and the Caribbean (1.6%), and Africa (0.2%). Of all the GIs in force, wines and spirits (48.1%) accounted for almost half of the 2023 global total, while agricultural products and foodstuffs accounted for 44.8%, and handicrafts 4.2% of the total.
How, then, can Liberia’s Brown Country Rice get GI protection?
The GI protection pathway for rice is fraught with challenges and requires serious investment in capacity building and marketing, but its possibilities first lie in the country’s 2016 Intellectual Property (IP) Act, which explicitly recognizes that certain products, when linked to their geographic origin, can be shielded from imitation, misuse of their names, and unfair competition through GI protections.
Under the act, farmers’ groups or cooperatives in central Liberia, where the rice is of geographic origin, can secure GI protection using the trademark registration system via certification and collective marks. The certification marks verify that products meet specific standards of that geographic origin, while collective marks guarantee that the product is from that particular region.
This method offers a streamlined approach to GI protection and complies with international trade agreements like the TRIPS, ensuring that GIs, whether domestic or foreign, receive adequate protection.
The dual approach system under trademark law is something the Kenyan Coffee Board has been using for its coffee GI protection process. Similarly, Ethiopia and a host of other countries, including the U.S., use this approach, as it is cheaper and less expensive compared to the sui generis system, which establishes specific rights exclusively for GIs, separate from trademark rights.
According to WIPO, GIs can be protected through a variety of legal means—sui generis systems, trademark law, regional systems, international agreements, or other national legal means.
As Ms. Bannah puts it, “The Liberia 2016 IP Act is an overlooked gem in Liberia’s legal landscape, as it creates the legal scaffolding upon which the rice can get GI recognition, unlocking higher market value in the process.”
On a regional scale, Liberia can tap into the resources of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, which facilitates the registration and protection of GIs across multiple African states, ensuring no unauthorized producer in neighboring countries capitalizes on the rice’s name or reputation. Similarly, this applies to WIPO, creating the pathway for the rice to be sold to premium niche markets in Europe, Asia, and North America.
What then needs to be done to speed up the process? The answer is simple. The Ministry of Agriculture, which is a board member of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office, needs to work collaboratively with the agency in guiding farmer cooperatives through the GI registration process and setting quality standards that define the rice’s GI value.
According to Ms. Bannah, the Ministry of Agriculture is positioned to lead this change by organizing farmer cooperatives, ensuring adherence to production standards, and creating a national Geographical Indication (GI) registry. This registry would document the defining traits of the rice, ensuring that the GI label accurately reflects its characteristics.
Editor’s Note:
This article was made possible by the kind support of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa (AfrIPI) project. The AfrIPI project funded by the European Union and managed by the European Union Intellectual Property, aims to raise awareness about intellectual property (IP) rights among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. The project further aims to boost intra-African trade and attract African-European investments.
For more information:
Visit: https://afripi.org/en
About the Author:
Robin Dopoe is an ARIPO-trained Intellectual Property Communication Specialist and Ambassador of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office.
