MARKETING EFFICIENCY AND VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTED FRUITS IN KHAGRACHHARI DISTRICT

Abstract

In support of stimulating growth, economic development, food security and alleviating poverty, the analysis of the marketing performance of fruits plays an important role in an on- going or future fruit development plan. The study was conducted at Khagrachhari Sadar upozila, Panchari and Dighinala upozila under Khagrachhari District to document socioeconomic profile of fruit growers and market intermediaries of selected fruits, to estimate marketing efficiency of fruit growers and market intermediaries in the study area, to identify the existing supply chain and value chain development of selected fruits and to identify the factors affecting value chain performance of selected fruits. The selected samples included 130 fruit growers (mango growers-56, jackfruits growers-34 and litchi growers-40) and 84 market intermediaries (wholesaler-16, Faria-20, Bepari-32 and retailer-16). For value chain development of selected fruits UNIDO’s approach or basic steps of UNIDO’s approach to agro-value chain analysis and development was followed. For identifying factors that affect value chain performance, factor analysis was done. In the study area 82.4 to 93 percent of fruit growers were male and rest were female whereas all the market intermediaries were male. Average age of fruit growers was 40 years to 43 years and intermediaries was 40 years to 46 years. 100 percent of both fruit growers and intermediaries were entitled to formal education. Result showed that, mango obtained the highest profit at Tk. 67388 per hectare. Jackfruit growers obtained highest profit Tk. 6201 per 100 pieces when they sold big jackfruit. Similarly litchi grower obtained highest profit at Tk. 2511 per 1000 piece. Results showed that for mango marketing the most efficient marketing channel was Fruit grower – Bepari (local)– Consumer (local) ( 1.77). For jackfruit marketing the efficient channel was Grower – Bepari (local)– Consumer (local) (1.37) and for litchi marketing the efficient channel was Grower – Bepari (local)– Consumer (local) (1.47). In the study area, nine supply chains were found for mango marketing of which three supply chains had gone out of the region. For jackfruit and litchi marketing six supply chains were found. For all fruits (mango, jackfruit and litchi), the most important supply chain, grower to customer was supplied about 34 percent of total fruits supplied. In this area, value was added in some stages. These were grading, cleaning, packaging, storing and transportation. Highest value was added on grading process which was about 85 percent to 100 percent. Using factor analysis, several causes were found that affect value chain development which was categorized into four factors; marketing factor, economic factor, social factor and environmental factor. For developing value chain in the study area some constraints like post harvest losses, storage problem, lack of processing center, high packaging cost etc was found. In this area, emphasis should be given to improved storage and transportation system, offering credit and other services to improve effective production and marketing of mango, jackfruit and litchi.