Consumers in Benin developed strong preference to imported white rice. It is suggested that upgrading local rice value chain will require efforts on post-harvest segments by adding value to the product. Therefore, efforts have been deployed in the recent years to upgrade the value chain. Using experimental auction based on Becker-DegrootMarshack (BDM) mechanism combined with the endow-and-upgrade and a two stage approach, this study assessed: i) consumers’ willingness to upgrade and to pay for different parboiled rice types, ii) the competitiveness of local parboiled rice relative to imported parboiled and iii) the price premium of each improved processing technology. Results show that consumers will accept parboiled rice only if it is high quality rice. Among the local parboiled rice, the one produced with GEM parboiling technology, milled with rubber roll mill and sorted with optical sorter is more competitive than imported rice. Among technologies, optical sorter is the most important in the parboiled rice value chain upgrading. Econometric results revealed that rice attributes and information exchange on the benefit of parboiled rice are the most important to be considered in the value chain upgrading. Results suggest to combine improved processing technologies for an effective value chain upgrading
