Marketing Of Local Spices In Owerri Municipal Of Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the marketing of local spices in Owerri municipal of Imo State, Nigeria. The objectives were to examine the costs and margins of the selected spices and analyze the effect of socio-economic variables on the income of the traders. Data for the study were collected from three markets in Owerri municipal (Ekeonunwa, Relief and New market). The spices investigated were Uziza (Piper guineese), Ehuru (Mondora myristica) and Dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa) because they are the most preferred local spices used by the inhabitants of Owerri municipal. Questionnaire was used to collect information from randomly sampled respondents. The type of data collected included socio-economic characteristic of the spices traders, purchase and sales transactions, marketing cost and marketing margins, regression analysis was used to analyze the influence of socio-economic variable on the traders income descriptive statistics such as means, percentages and charts were used to analyze the costs and margins of the selected spices. The result showed that gender, marital status, occupation, trading experience household size, purchase location storage cost, total loading cost, total off-loading cost, total packaging cost and total purchasing cost influenced income of spice traders. The major problems affecting the traders are lack of capital, transportation problem, lack of market information and poor storage facilities. Policy measures were recommended in form of micro- credit facilities and improvement of social infrastructure in the areas of purchase and sale. Keywords: marketing, local spicesJournal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol. 7 (1) 2007: pp. 101-106