Marketing and Promotional Plan for Local Rice Based on Drivers of Traders and Consumers Preferences

2018

English

In Ghana, rice is becoming one of the most important staple foods with per capita consumption of 35 kg in 2013 and urban consumption accounting for 76% of total rice consumed in the country (Osei-Asare, 2010). Ghana’s rice production satisfies around 30-40% of demand hence the deficit is supplied through importation resulting in an average rice import bill of US$ 450 million annually (MOFA, 2010). Despite the low local production levels, just about 20% of locally produced rice is consumed in urban areas in particular due to consumer preferences for long grain aromatic rice, which is principally imported from Vietnam and Thailand (Angelucci et al., 2013). This has been a concern for Ghana government as it also deprives local producers the opportunities to increase productions and reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country. Moreover, marketing of imported rice is done aggressively through television, radio and print media advertisements and are distributed all over the country while marketing strategy for local rice is weak if not non-existent (ODI, 2003). Omari et al. (2015) found that most restaurants do not use local rice due to marketing-related reasons including the inability of users to identify the rice by brand names. Some restaurateurs also believed that some traders deceptively package and sell locally produced rice as imported brands due to users and consumers’ preference for imported rice. Even among consumers, factors that influence rice preferences vary. It has been reported that consumers generally prefer cooked grains to be firm and non-sticky (Priestly, 1994). In Brazil, researchers found that consumers preferred parboiled to milled rice (Luz and Treptow, 1994) while in Sri Lanka, the factors influencing rice preferences were percentage of head rice, shape of milled rice and aroma (Kotagama HB, Kapila, 1996). As an intervention to increase local rice production and consumption, the government of Ghana is undertaking rice upscaling programme with the goal of achieving rice production growth rate of 20% per annum, to attain self-sufficiency by 2018 (and reach a surplus of 13% or 111,940 metric tonnes). However, these good interventions may not be successful if the perceptions, motives and preferences of traders, users and consumers of rice are not considered. Thus, detailed insights are required to give policy advice on how to address these issues to boost trading in local rice as well as its utilization and consumption to ensure food and nutrition security. The objective of this study was to: 1. To identify traders and consumers’ preferred rice types in rural rice-producing areas and non-rice producing urban centres 2. Assess the drivers of traders and consumers’ rice preferences to get better insights into factors that influence the sale, purchase, utilization and consumption of rice (local and imported) in Ghana 3. To develop a promotional and marketing plan to stimulate the production, sale, purchase, utilization and consumption of locally-produced rice in Ghana. This study responds to the request of farmers in the Hohoe and Jasikan Rice Innovation Platforms, established under PARI Year 3 project (see Ampadu-Ameyaw et al. (2017), to identify traders and consumers’ rice preferences to enable them produce rice varieties that 9 meet users’ demands. It therefore provides relevant insights into the rice varieties farmers must produce as well as the kind of quality improvement required to meet traders, processors and consumers’ preferences. This study also provides strategic guidelines for the development of a marketing and promotional plan for locally produced rice in Ghana. The study aligns with PARI’s objective of ensuring food and nutrition security. The findings will provide inputs that will be useful for developing a marketing strategy for rice, which will be subsequently implemented, monitored and evaluated to assess its impact on rice sales, utilization and consumption as well as farmers’ income and nutritional status. The design of the consumer study was guided by the conceptual framework presented in Figure 1. The framework presents drivers of food choice under broad factors such as socio-psychosocial factors, product characteristics, social and governmental environments and consumer behaviour factors. Additional factors (drivers) were explored through qualitative methods such as focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Factors that influences traders rice preferences were explored by broadly examining factors such as policy environment, quality characteristics, storage properties, market infrastructure, marketability and social factors.

Omari, R.; Ampadu-Ameyaw, R.; & Essegbey, G. O.