In response to the world food crisis in 2008, Senegal developed a productivist national food self-sufficiency programme. However, the critical question is not whether the programme can meet its ambitious target of self-sufficiency in rice production by 2015, but, if it does, how will domestic rice reach urban markets, where consumers generally prefer imported rice for its superior grain quality. Information collected through interviews and a stakeholder workshop advances the argument that policy sequencing will be crucial in order to upgrade Senegalese rice value chains progressively. Any large-scale investments in productivity will need to be preceded by investments in post-harvest grain-quality infrastructure before sector-wide marketing strategies can be adopted that enhance the chain competitiveness of domestic relative to imported rice.