The Cérégal Campaign Promotes Local Senegalese Cereals

Senegalese consumers, especially urban women and youth, have been purchasing more imported rice and other grains. To rejuvenate the demand for local grains and strengthen the livelihoods of local farmers, the Cérégal campaign was created in 2010 to promote local grain consumption. The Cérégal campaign is a partnership between the PCE project team, private companies, local NGOS, and Senegal government organizations who all share the goal of increasing Senegalese consumption of Senegalese grain.

Cérégal launched in June 2010 and quickly organized a series of highly visible initiatives that focused on changing the purchasing trends of the urban youth and urban women. This included door-to-door campaigning across Dakar, an initiative that reached 5,656 homes and 14,958 people. The campaign also ran a billboard campaign and radio spots in Dakar to reinforce the door-to-door efforts. Using animation, local animators created cartoons that showed housewives how to prepare dishes using local cereals. Urban housewives were also targeted through market road shows that reached about 10,286 women. The awareness campaign was widened to 1,500 women students at Dakar University. The markets road shows, door to door and University campaign reached 26,744 people among them 19,963 women.  

In 2011, Cérégal will continue to expand its partner pool and promote its brand as a quality label. Such an association is anticipated to benefit local producers, processors, wholesalers, and retailers for increased sales and income for all actors of the value chain.

The Céregal campaign is part of IRG’s Support for Accelerated Growth and Increased Competitiveness for Trade (SAGIC) or USAID/Projet Croissance Economique (PCE) project.