Analyse des facteurs déterminant la demande du riz au centre et au sud du Bénin

The main sources of wealth of a country are exports on the one hand. On the other hand, the main reason of the  impover-islunent 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 conceming 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 ofrice. 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 ofrice 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 bas 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 ofrice have been inquired. Severa! methods of the analysis mainly quantitative have been used. It emerges from the analysis the following results: The local rice is sold Jess expensive than imported rice. Indeed, during the year 2005, the kilogram of the local rice is sold at a middle price of 281.26 (±44. 76) FCF A whereas the imported rice one is delivered at a midd!e price of 312.70 (±21.32) FCFA in Glazoué. To Cotonou, the middle price of the local rice is 353.12 (±59.84) FCFA whereas the imported one is 401.873(±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 Jess 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 mode! 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 FCF AS for the whiteness, 16.2 IFCF A for the aroma and 14.l lFCFA 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 FCF A 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.