Report on price sensitivity and consumer acceptability of rice in Ghana

Abstract

Rice (prototype, local and imported) was evaluated by 109 consumers in the unpacked form for acceptability and affordability. The most acceptable rice comprised the prototype, imported parboiled and imported US no.5 followed by the local white and lastly the locally sold parboiled rice. This suggests that there is potential for the prototype rice providing a suitable marketing strategy is employed and the benefits to producers and traders are real. Most consumers interviewed ate rice either every week or every day and purchased imported white rice (5kg) every month from local markets. The most common dish containing rice was jollof. The majority (70%) said they had received information (through TV and radio) promoting rice and that promotions were reported to emphasise taste, quality and nutritional benefits. However, only 45% were aware of the potential benefits. Most consumers (87%) mentioned they would like to receive more information and that the most popular medium mentioned was the TV (GBC and TV3 stations), followed by radio (Peace FM, Adom FM and Joy FM stations). Compared to the other similar types of rice commonly sold in Accra, the mean price of the prototype estimated by the consumers was cedi 7773 which was similar to imported US raw rice. As the score for acceptability of rice judged by consumers increased the affordability decreased. More detailed inspection suggested that there were two groups of consumers, those who expressed low affordability with price and those who expressed high affordability with price. The least affordability group of consumers scored the lowest priced rice (local white and US no.5) to be more acceptable suggesting real behavioural differences. Inspection of the two groups with respect to affordability suggested that the higher affordability group were younger, more likely to be working full time, have additional sources of income, more likely to own their accommodation (13% for low affordability, 24% for high affordability), live in detached accommodation as opposed to a compound or a flat, have achieved a higher level of education, own a vehicle, purchase rice at the supermarket or mini-shop, purchase larger quantities at a time and have received information promoting rice. This suggests that the prototype rice would probably sell at a lower price (between Cedi 5667 and Cedi 7250) in the markets if sold in the unpackaged form. The prototype rice would be anticipated to sell at a higher price (between Cedi 8833 and Cedi 10417) if targeted at the higher affordability group. However, this study does not indicate the proportion of consumers in Accra who belong to the low and high affordability groups or the additional packaging and marketing costs required to reach these groups