Economic Analysis of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Export Marketing Channels by Small-Scale Farmers in Tanzania: The Case of Meru District

Abstract

The study was carried out in two divisions of Meru District in Arusha region in Tanzania to investigate the profitability and coordination of fresh fruit and vegetable export marketing channels by small-scale farmers in Tanzania. Purposive sampling was done in order to select two divisions where most of the horticultural crops are grown and then simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 60 small-scale farmers of fresh fruit and vegetable, 5 large-scale producers, 14 middlemen and one Export Company. Descriptive and quantitative analytical techniques i.e. cluster analysis; GrossMargin and Logistic regression were employed. The findings suggest that four export marketing channels for fresh fruit and vegetable exist, and these are vertically integrated. The enterprises profitability between farmers selling fresh fruit and vegetable to export and domestic markets was statistically different (P<0.05), meaning that export trade is shown significantly being more profitable than domestic trade, with a mean GM difference of Tsh. 543,642 per acre. This study also found that knowledge about Global Good agricultural practices, record keeping, possession of storage facilities and contracts were the major challenges facing FFV export market enterprises. This supports the formation of FFV farmers and traders association and the provision of soft credit which may increase FFV export marketing efficiency.

Key words: Fruit and Vegetable, Export Market channels, Small-Scale Farmers