A broken market: can increased access to broken rice decrease food insecurity in Haiti?

Abstract

AbstractHaiti is a unique rice market in the sense that, despite the high poverty rates and dependency on rice as a staple, it relies on imports (80% of total consumption) of high-quality milled rice for which it pays a premium price. Haiti requires that all imported rice have a maximum of 4% broken kernels, which results in Haiti importing one of the most expensive non-fragrant long grain rice in the world. This study implements a non-hypothetical field experiment (300 observations) to elicit which rice attributes Haitians valued as revealed by their purchasing behavior in an open-air market setting. Specifically, we set out to estimate if Haitians would discount broken rice in such a manner that strict import regulations, which keeps cheaper imported broken rice out of domestic markets, continue to be warranted. Our findings suggest consumers (across locations and income groups) were not found to pay more for a reduced amount of broken rice, with the exception of the highest income group. This should signal to policy makers in Haiti that consumers are willing to consume rice with a higher percentage of brokens than the 4% importation standard. This is important from a food security standpoint as rice with a higher broken percentage provides the same nutritional value as rice with a lower broken rate, and can be sourced globally at a discounted price. Allowing imports of rice with higher broken rate could help alleviate food insecurity in Haiti by providing a cheaper alternative to relatively expensive domestic rice and imported rice, which currently has an inflated price due to its high-quality standards imposed by Haitian importers.