Economic Loses And Marketing Margin Of Mango In Selected Markets Of Oyo State, Nigeria

Mango accounts for approximately half of all tropical fruits produced worldwide. Losses are encountered in the marketing processing of the commodity due to various handling and transportation methods. This study therefore assessed the economic losses and marketing margin of Mango in selected markets of Oyo State, Nigeria. A total of 64 wholesalers and 36 retailers were interviewed with the aid of well-structured questionnaire using a multistage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, marketing margin and efficiency. Result revealed that most of the wholesalers (79.7% and retailers (100%) were females. Majority of the marketers were married and were within 31-50 years of age (79.7%) having 1-20 years experience (76.2%) in marketing of the commodity. Purchase pattern of marketers revealed an average of 2,375.1kg for wholesales and 595.7kg for retailers per week. Marketing margin of wholesalers and retailers obtained per week without incidence of losses were N25,607.34 and N9,264.18 respectively. With incidence of loses marketing margin of N24,305.16 was recorded for wholesaler and N8,906,678 for retailers, resulting in 5.1% reduction in marketing margin for wholesalers and 3.8% or retailers. Prevalent factors identified to be responsible for economic losses in mango in the study area were poor handling during mango marketing (65.2%) harvesting method used by farmers (64.3%) and transportation (39.7%). Mechanical damage (69.0%) was the main type of damage responsible for economic losses among the marketers in the study area. The study recommends capacity building on post harvest of mango for marketers to minimize losses experienced in the commodity chain.