December 27, 2021

Promoting access to a sustainable market for women rice parboilers in Bobo Dioulasso

Staple Crops

Burkina Faso

Rice parboiling is a major activity for the women of Douna and Dandé in the Bobo Dioulasso region of Burkina Faso. This activity allows hundreds of women in these localities to generate more income for their economic empowerment. However, the quality of the finished products, as well as their marketing, remain real problems that women still face. Given the competition from imports, rice parboilers in Bobo are struggling to sell their products. Nowadays, improving the quality of their parboiled rice, increasing their sales volume and having access to a remunerative market are the main ambitions of women.

Nebnooma is a mini rice mill that processes and markets white rice under the label 'Riz AMIR'. The company has always had the idea to start producing and marketing parboiled rice in order to diversify its product offer on the local market. It has also set the objective of limiting the importation of parboiled rice by adding value to local rice. Thus, as part of its partnership with 2SCALE, Nebnooma now aims to scale up its ambition. Mahamadou Ouédraogo, CEO of Nebnooma explains:

We decided to diversify our offer by marketing products that are accessible to everyone. Very often, our sales people give us information about our customers' requests for parboiled rice. The demand for parboiled rice is increasing on the local market, hence Nebnooma's motivation to add it to its batch of marketed rice. So, following the advice of our partner 2SCALE, we decided to collaborate with women who are already involved in this activity.

Towards the beginning of a fruitful collaboration

Midway through the 2021 rice season, 2SCALE facilitated a meeting between rice parboilers from two parboiling centers and Nebnooma to sign a contractual agreement for the sale of parboiled rice by the company. This collaboration represents a great market opportunity for both entities.

Mrs. Soura Maïssata is leader of the union of parboilers of Douna. The union has been parboiling rice for over 10 years. In view of all the challenges mentioned above, this connection with Nebnooma, for her union, comes at the right time. She expressed her satisfaction on behalf of the women parboilers of the region:

Our collaboration with Nebnooma aims to create a stable market for all the actors involved in rice, especially for us parboilers. In our centers, we can parboil up to 100 tons per year. This is why today's meeting was very useful for us, because it enabled us to reach an agreement on the price and quantity to be supplied to the factory.

In order to get the collaboration off to a better start, Nebnooma has expressed a need for 50 tons of parboiled rice per year, with a capacity to go up to 125 tons.

The factory has also created its own bags to contain and valorize local parboiled rice packaged in 20 kg, 25 kg and 50 kg packages, which it plans to market through its own distribution network.

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