The flow of food goods from producers and importers to consumers is ensured by a large number of traders, including wholesale and retail. Food imports are a socio-economic fact in Burkina Faso. Due to the structural but also cyclical inadequacy of national production to meet the population’s needs for food, it has seen a significant rise in recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the traits of imports and the actor typology. From February to April 2020, 245 freight forwarders, 60
importers of placali and attiéké, and 57 phytosanitary inspectors were interviewed at 19 border crossings in Burkina Faso.
The results showed that the import is formal (97.14%) and that the freight forwarders were mostly men (88.67%) who were mostly without proper training (57.33%) and who had an average age of 33 years with 59.18% who had secondary level. However, 90% of importers of attiéké and placali were women working in the informal sector (100%). In addition, 39.67% of the profits of these actors were intended for the maintenance of families and 37.38% for savings. Given the sector’s social and
economic significance, greater supervision is necessary to ensure a healthy diet.

Freight forwarders, Imports, Consumers, Economic, Social, Burkina Faso