The growth of food import in Ivory Coast, especially rice, took place thanks to low prices in the world market and as the result of a policy favoring the consumer's security. The evolution of the relative prices of basic foodstuff as a whole points to the limits of a policy of rice import substitution. In a context of considerable loss of purchasing power since 1 978, particularly in the so-called informal sector, the economic parameter takes over the cultural factor as a determining element of the food choice. Rice, consumed in all social stratas, progressively becomes "the poor people's disk", the State's ability to adopt protectionist measures or to carry out a cheap supply policy is limited, considering external constraints, due to the evolution of world markets, as well as internal constraints, linked to the effect of structural adjustment policies.
