Critical Analysis of Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Meat Consumption in Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire

The aim of this paper was to study rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) meat consumption in Côte d’Ivoire. To achieve this goal, a survey is conducted among consumers through a survey-valuation approach. Survey was carried out in 13 municipalities of Abidjan’s district between September 2017 and May 2018. The survey collected data from 1950 respondents targeted in the Abidjan’s district. In each municipality, 150 persons were interviewed, mainly in areas of great meeting such as car and bus stations, markets, restaurants and around schools. The method adopted in this work was random sampling. The data collection was done by self-counting (respondents completed the questionnaire themselves) and interview-assisted methods for each respondent. Results showed that rabbit meat is much appreciated by a large part of population (74.36%). The main buyers of rabbit meat are restaurant managers (35%) and households (35%). Reasons of non-consumption of rabbit meat are unavailability (49%), absence in eating habits (22%) and high cost (20%). Consumers ranked rabbit meat in third place compared to other meats (chicken, and sheep) consumed in Abidjan. 49.12% found rabbit meat more expensive than other meats. Therefore, the adoption of effective trade strategies such as entrepreneurial, training, promotion in mass media, competitive pricing and market diversification, could make rabbit meat available and reduce the cost of sale. This could encourage the population to include rabbit meat more in their menus.