Analysis of Market Performance of Farm-Raised Clarias Gariepinus in the South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

This paper appraises the market performance of farm – raised catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in the South-Western Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the capital cities of the six States in South – Western Nigeria due to their level of catfish consumption by random selection of 80 Catfish Wholesalers (CW) and 155 Catfish Retailers (CR) from the fish markets in the States. Two sets of structured questionnaires were administered on wholesalers and retailers. To evaluate market performance, marketing margins and marketing efficiency were calculated for the wholesalers and retailers. The results showed that transportation costs were 26.65% and 17.50% for wholesalers and retailers respectively, this represented higher percentage in the total marketing costs for each trader. The retailers had higher marketing margin (N85.10/kg) than wholesalers (N69.60/kg). Retailers had higher marketing efficiency of 221.90% than wholesalers (178.23%). High positive gross and profit margin obtained at both levels implied that the sellers were able to cover both their variable and fixed costs. Farm – raised catfish (Clarias gariepinus) marketing was found to be efficient at both scales of operations. It therefore recommended that there is need to improve all the road networks to reduce transportation cost, and credit facilities should be provided for the traders to expand the scale of their operation for higher profits to improve their livelihood.

Keywords: Fish marketing, Clarias gariepinus, marketing margin, market efficiency