Quality certification for locally produced complementary foods in Mali

This dissertation evaluates the impact of quality certification on the demand for locally-produced infant foods. To avoid stunting or wasting, most children aged 6-24 months need to complement breastmilk with processed foods having higher energy density than adult foods. Donors have subsidized the production and distribution of such complementary foods in Mali and elsewhere, but on the open market these products fail to attract consumers. Almost all complementary foods are either produced at home, or sold under heavily-advertised brand names. The dissertation posits that consumers may avoid "generic" complementary foods because they cannot observe their content, and tests the hypothesis that independent quality certification can partially substitute for brand advertising at much lower cost. To test whether certification would be cost-effective, we introduce an innovative experimental-market survey to elicit consumers' willingness to pay for quality certified products. Consumers' mean willingness-to-pay for certification was 455 FCFA (approximately US$0.70) per package of 400 g. of certified local product. The marginal cost of certification is estimated to be between 77 and 125 FCFA per package. The estimated total economic surplus gain from introducing certification could range between US$0.95 to US$2.5 million per year. Statistical analysis provides evidence that willingness to pay for quality assurance exceeds the estimated cost of certification for almost all households, and rises with consumers' education and income level. The data and results presented here suggest that there would be very large gains from introducing quality certification to the market for complementary foods. A legal and institutional analysis suggests how a self-financing quality certification system would work in Mali. Further research towards implementation is needed, so that private-sector provision of low-cost complementary foods can emerge and supplement other elements of national child-nutrition and anti-poverty policies such as maternal education, and the provision of primary health care.