Deciphering urban consumer requirements for rice quality gives insights for driving the future acceptability of local rice in Africa: Case study in the city of Saint-Louis in senegal.

Ibrahima Mané,Geneviève Fliedel,Papa Madiallacké Diedhiou,Christian Mestres,Joseph Bassama,Moussa Ndong

doi:10.1002/fsn3.2136

Abstract

Rice is the staple cereal in Senegal. Despite the many policies implemented over the last decade, Senegalese consumers still prefer imported over local rice. To understand this preference, this study compares consumer acceptability of three local rice samples versus two imported rice samples. Two focus groups and a consumer test with 120 women were carried out in the city of Saint‐Louis in Senegal. The results concerning consumption habits showed that about 85% of the surveyed women consume rice at least once a day (at lunch). The hedonic test showed that consumers appreciated all five rice samples, but the most liked samples were obtained from industrial processing of either local or imported whole and fragrant rice. The least liked sample was a local semi‐industrial rice, including 50% broken grains. The results of the just‐about‐right (JAR) test and check‐all‐that‐apply (CATA) test showed that the sensory descriptors such as white color, well‐cooked, and homogeneous grain size had an influence on the consumers’ choice of rice samples. However, the most important selection criteria were the homogeneous size of the rice grains, the absence of impurities, both of which are directly linked to the milling conditions, and fragrance, which is related to the variety. The origin of the rice samples did not influence the consumers’ choice. This study showed that local rice can compete with imported rice if processing is improved in some small‐scale rice mills.

Highlights

Rice is one of the staple cereals in the Senegalese diet
Since the 1980s, the government has invested in fertilizers, finance, and agricultural infrastructure via the National Society for the Development and Exploitation of the Senegal River Delta (SAED)
During the focus group discussions, 75% of women mentioned that rice is consumed at least once a day by the Senegalese, and the remainder said it can even be eaten twice a day

Summary

Introduction

Rice is one of the staple cereals in the Senegalese diet. At an estimated 50kg per capita per year (USDA, 2019), rice represents 34%of national cereal consumption (Maïga et al, 2020). . |2 to resort to massive rice imports (Soullier et al, 2020), meaning the economy depends to a great extent on the international market (Colen et al, 2013). In this context, the Senegalese government has encouraged efforts to develop the sector and to move toward rice self-sufficiency (Demont & Rizzotto, 2012). The majority of national rice production is harvested in the irrigated areas of the Senegal River valley. Despite these efforts, the quality of the local rice still does not meet consumer requirements. Local rice is still unable to compete with imported rice (Demont & Rizzotto, 2012)

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Results

Conclusion