Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

Chapter 5. Impact of Mali’s food and agricultural policies 177

to the 2008 food crisis. In order to satisfy consumers, especially urban consumers, the government
waived taxes and duties on imports of rice from March 2008 to December 2009, on condition that
importers agreed to sell their rice at or below a ceiling price (Table 7). Rice sales from domestic stocks
in food-insecure areas have been another measure to improve food security.

Overall, the policy environment has allowed Mali to increase its rice production over the period studied.
Production more than doubled between 2005 and 2009, although it did drop sharply in 2010. However,
the increase in production began in 2005, well before the adoption of the Rice Initiative (see Figure 18).

Figure 18. Rice production, imports and exports in Mali from 1980 to 2010

Source: Authors, from FAOSTAT and CPS, 2010

Despite the increase in production, the incentives and disincentives to production received by producers
over the period lead to questions about sustainability of the Rice Initiative. Both producers and
wholesalers received strong disincentives over the period studied, which means they did not benefit
from the opportunities arising from the international price spike during those years (Figure 19). These
disincentives can partially be explained by the government’s price policies (tax exemption and price
ceilings), although these measures mostly benefited a handful of large rice importers in the country
(Diakite and Kone, 2010) who have prevented fluid transmission of high international prices up to the
farmer level. Further explanations include the government’s decision to set low prices for rice and to
distribute free food.

Price 2008 2009

Wholesale (FCFA/tonne) 300,000 280,000

Retail (FCFA/kg) 310 300

Source: INSTAT, 2011, cited by Bourdet, Dabitao and Dembele, (2011) and World Bank (2012).

Table 7. Wholesale and retail ceiling prices for rice in Mali, FCFA/tonne and FCFA/kg, 2008-2009

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010

Thousands

tons

Producon

Imports

Exports