Do urban African dwellers pay a premium for food quality and, if so, how much? An investigation of the Malian fonio grain market

Very little data is available concerning the valuation of quality on existing food markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data collected from a survey of fonio (a cereal) retail markets conducted in Bamako, Mali, Africa and a hedonic price Partial Least Square regression method, this study shows that most quality attributes declared as important by consumers have a specific hedonic price that is different from zero. This is interpreted as a result of the efficient performance of so-called traditional informal markets. Among the valued attributes, some are physical (colour, degree of milling) and thus relatively easy to assess, while the assessment of others (category or country of origin) are more complicated for both parties to the transaction. These attributes, however, also have specific hedonic prices. Informal norms and a certain amount of trust are thus present in these markets and should not be underestimated. The inclusion of buyer characteristics in the model is justified by the differences in bargaining power, which are essentially linked with different levels of experience buying or using the product. We showed that women were getting better prices for the same product quality. The premiums paid for quality varied from 1 to 14% of the price. These estimates have confirmed the other few estimates done in African food markets.