Does increasing the availability of a nutritious food produced by a small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise increase its consumption? Evidence from a field experiment in Kenya

Abstract

Many development programs rely on the idea that increasing profitability of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) could increase availability of nutritious foods among low‐income consumers. We designed a randomized controlled trial in which we made a specific nutritious product produced by an SME exhaustively available in low‐income local markets. We find that compared to control markets, consumers in treated markets purchased and consumed more of this product and less of competing brands with added sugar and fat. However, overall consumption for the product category was not increased and there was no change in the consumption of other related but potentially less nutritious foods. Our findings suggest the need for alternative policies to increase consumption of nutritious foods.

Using Novel Multimethod Evaluation Approaches to Understand Complex Food System Interventions: Insights from a Supply Chain Intervention Intended to Improve Nutrition

“…The product was sold at the standard market price of 20 KES each (approximately United States $0.18) and earned the retailer 5 KES profit per sachet. The detailed methods are reported previously [ 56 ].…”