Measuring consumer acceptance of instant fortified millet products using affective tests and auctions in Dakar, Senegal

Abstract

Small-scale affordable extruders create new opportunities for small enterprise food processors to manufacture nutritionally enhanced products. Still, consumer interest in these products needs to be assessed first. Affective tests with 296 consumers in Dakar, Senegal, evaluated five pearl millet flours: (a) conventional, compared to four instant-porridge flour products; (b) sifted; (c) wholegrain; (d) sifted with premix; (e) wholegrain with micronutrient premix and food-to-food fortified (FtFF). Willingness-to-pay (WTP) was elicited through experimental auctions under two treatments: firstly without information, then with information. Consumers liked FtFF (taste, aroma, appearance) but were indifferent to instant. They did not appreciate wholegrain flour (appearance) or premix (appearance, aroma and taste). Without information, consumers showed no differences in WTP. With information, consumers paid premiums for FtFF (27-30%) (both treatments), and premix (17%), instant (9%), and wholegrain (-10%) (one treatment). Costs of instant, wholegrain and premix products were lower than consumers’ WTP, indicating potential profits, but not those of FtFF. There is a market for instant cereals in Senegal. Consumers require product information in order to compromise on some attributes to benefit from instant, fortified and wholegrain pearl millet products. Manufacture would be cost-effective, but FtFF costs need to be reduced.

The Impact of Information on Valuation in Experimental Auctions: A Comparison of Between and Within Subject Designs

“…In the meantime, we suggest caution and careful consideration when selecting a between-versus within-subject design that aims to elicit WTP for products that are not involved in the information provided in the experiment. However, our results corroborate the findings of De Groote et al (2021), showing that while there may be quantitative differences in valuation estimates from between-subject and within-subject designs, qualitatively, the impact of information on relative valuation does not differ. Notes: Reported values are the estimated coefficient and, in parentheses, cluster robust standard errors.…”

“…They reported that participants in both conditions valued the larger sized product more, but the magnitude of the valuation premium for a larger product size was 2.5 times greater in the within-subject design. A second article that includes valuation estimates in both between-and within-subject conditions is De Groote et al (2021). The authors estimated consumers' WTP for pearl millet flours under two scenarios-with and without information-in both between-and within-subject conditions.…”

Market assessment of fortified parboiled rice in Burkina Faso

“…There is a growing literature looking at consumer preferences for fortified foods in Africa [21][22][23][24], but to our knowledge no study to date has assessed consumer willingness to pay for fortified rice in Africa. The goal of this study is to ascertain consumer preferences for parboiled rice fortified with Fe, Zn, and vitamin A in Burkina Faso.…”