ABSTRACT
The main sources of wealth of a country are exports on the one
hand. On the other hand, the main reason of the impoverishment of a country is
the quantity of products imported. So that a country is economically steady, it
is necessary to insure a balance between volumes (in monetary term) of imports
and exports. To reach this equilibrium, one option is to impose a ban on the
imported products except those which can not be produced in the country.
Unfortunately until 2004, Benin imported 236563 tons of rice, a product which
becomes a staple food for our population on the one side. On the other side,
Benin receives under budgetary help an important quantity of rice that ONASA
dump on the market at a relatively low price. In the same time, our country
overflows with shallows and valleys, of which potentialities in production of
rice are known, but yet untapped. To bring the farming population to veritably
invest on this activity and to correct the food habits of the Beninese
concerning consumption of rice, it is indispensable that rice locally produce
can answer to consumers desires. It is then necessary to know what their
preferences are and what motivates their choice of rice.
These criteria of choice orienting consumers toward the
imported rice are today barely known. In order to fill this gap, this survey is
initiated and aims to identify and analyse factors determining the preference
or the incentive of consumers for the imported rice; and to propose solutions
or alternative process needed to the reversing of the tendency in favour of the
local rice. To reach this main objective, the three specific objectives of the
research are:
- To study the influence of the price of rice on the type of rice
consumed;
- To analyse the socioeconomic and demographic factors of the
household influencing the choice of the variety of rice purchased;
- To analyse nutritional qualities and physical aspects
orienting the consumer's choice.
The data collection has been made in two phases. An
exploratory phase that has allowed ringing better the sites of investigation,
to identify people which must be in our sample and to refine better the
hypotheses and the questionnaire. The second phase, witch occurred current
July-August 2006, has been achieved with structured questionnaire. This
investigation covered six (6) villages/quarters of city selected in two (2)
departments of the South and Center Benin. In general, 233 consumers of rice
have been inquired.
Several methods of the analysis mainly quantitative have been
used.
It emerges from the analysis the following results:
The local rice is sold less expensive than imported rice.
Indeed, during the year 2005, the kilogram of the local rice is sold at a
middle price of 281.26 (#177;44.76) FCFA whereas the imported rice one is
delivered at a middle price of 312.70 (#177;21.32) FCFA in Glazoué. To
Cotonou, the middle price of the local rice is 353.12 (#177;59.84) FCFA whereas
the imported one is 401.873(#177;51.78). According to that result, we conclude
that the high price of imported rice doesn't prevent consumers to prefer it to
the local one. Then, there are other reasons that would justify this affection
of consumers to the imported rice.
The taste constitutes the first choice criteria of the rice.
Thus, 23% of people investigated prefer to consume rice because of its taste.
After the whiteness and the capacity of inflation (respectively 12 and 10%),
the aroma, the price and the waste product absence are more other criteria of
choice considered by consumers (9%; 8% and 7% respectively). In Glazoué,
the aroma is relatively less taken in account in the rice purchase (5%),
whereas at Cotonou, it constitutes the fourth criteria of choice; the capacity
of inflation being relegated at ninth rank. The other character of rice
orienting the consumer's choice according to their importance are the easiness
of cooking, the shape of grains, the availability all year round, the packing
material used, the cohesion of grains after cooking, the conservation after
cooking, the rate of break and the texture of rice.
Since the value of Chow test (4.27) is highly significant at
1%, it exist a significant difference between factors that determine the demand
of the local rice and those determining the demand of imported rice. Therefore,
the behaviour of consumers and their attitudes are different and depend on the
type of rice their face. The comparison of the behaviour of consumers of the
local rice to those who consume imported rice reveal that the favourable
attributes to the demand of imported rice are generally unfavourable to the
demand of the local rice. Indeed, attributes as atri2 (waste products
absence), atri3 (whiteness), atri4 (milling rate),
atri5 (cohesion of grains after cooking) and dispo
(availability of rice all the year round) are unfavourable to the demand of the
local rice because negatively correlated; whereas these variables (except
atri5) are positively correlated with the quantity of imported rice
consumed.
The estimation of hedonic price model bring out that the main
attributes affecting the price of imported rice are the waste products
(impurities) absence, the availability all the year round, the whiteness, the
aroma, the cohesion of grains after cooking and the total income of the
household. These variables as much as they are, influence positively the price
of imported rice. So the implicit marginal prices are 45.3FCFA for the impurity
absence, 46.2FCFA for the availability all the year round, 51.66 FCFAS for the
whiteness, 16.21FCFA for the aroma and 14.11FCFA for the cohesion of grains.
As for the local rice, consumers are disposed to pay marginal
to benefit attributes as the cohesion (18.88 FCFAS) and the strong capacity of
inflation (13.84FCFA). For the other attributes as the availability in period
meadow harvests, the availability in period of harvest or post-harvest and the
taste, the implicit marginal prices are negative: -48.24; -39.94 and -51.56
FCFA respectively. Therefore, several efforts remain to make to change this
tendency.
In definitive, the results of this survey show that local rice
presents several insufficiencies compared to the imported rice, what justifies
the affection that has consumers for the imported rice. To reverse this
tendency in favour of the local rice, several efforts implying actors to
different level are still necessary.
Key words: Determinants, Demand, LES,
Price hedonic, Attributes, local Rice, Imported rice.
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