Market Prospects for Groundnut in West Africa COMMON FUND ...

Results of the Survey
Niamey
Niamey is a national center for consumption and a transit point and trade
center between the Nigerien ‘Groundnut Basin’ of Dosso, Maradi and Zinder
regions and the trade routes to northern Mali (Ayorou to Gao) and Burkina
Faso (Torodi to Fada N’Gourma).
As in Senegal (but not Mali), industrial centers are closer to production
areas than to the capital (Maradi in particular), so the bulk of volume traded
does not necessarily pass through Niamey, as it does in the case of Bamako.
The bulk of regional trade involves import and export between
production areas, markets and industrial centers of demand in Nigeria –
Sokoto, Katsina, Kano and Maiduguri. Groundnut is traded with Nigeria, and
with Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and possibly Chad and Libya,
in all forms – in-shell, shelled, as oil and as meal.
One wholesaler interviewed in Niamey trades between 100 and 133 MT
per year to buyers from Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin. This trader pays fCFA
25,000 in storage rent per month, which would imply overhead storage costs
of fCFA 2.25 to fCFA 3.00 per kg. Generally, transport is provided by both
the seller and the buyer. Transport costs are at least fCFA 6.67 per kg for
groundnut in-shell.
Groundnut prices in Niamey (in-shell, by 45 kg sacks) do not vary by a
wide margin, ranging from fCFA 155 per kg during the harvest to fCFA 267
per kg in July and August – a factor of only 1.7.
Dosso
Dosso region extends south of Niamey to the Benin border at Gaya/
Malanville. Groundnut production here is primarily a women’s activity, as is
the household processing of oil and kulikuli for household consumption and
for sale. Income from sales of groundnuts, groundnut oil and kulikuli is
commonly used to support household requirements including children’s
healthy and education.
The seasonality of production and marketing is consistent with Senegal
and Mali, with harvest starting in October, and the bulk of trade occurring
from October through January when prices are lowest.
A woman farmer in Boboye sells between 450 and 675 kg of shelled
groundnut per year locally, while a cooperative of 20 farmers sells between
50