Structure and efficiency of dried fish market in Osogbo, Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty reduction strategies through efficient marketing have become an issue of great emphasis and this could only be achieved by looking into the structure of such market. This study, therefore, investigated the market structure and efficiency of the dried fish market in Osogbo, Osun state, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 53 respondents for the study. Data collected with a structured questionnaire were analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, gross-margin analysis, marketing efficiency measures, and Gini coefficient. Results revealed that 92.4% of the sampled respondents were female and married (86.8%) while 35.9% had primary education. The mean age and experience were 48.75±9.75 and 16.54±5.67 respectively while the mean monthly sales per retailer was N28,000. It was revealed that 11% of the traders made sales worth N691,200 per month while, 89% of the traders made total sales worth N792,800. This distribution showed that very few traders accounted for the higher total monthly sales. The Gini coefficient of 0.79 indicated high structure defect that is, a wide departure from a perfect market model whose concentration should approach 0 and also confirmed that the market is perfectly non-competitive. The market margin and market efficiency revealed that the dried fish market is profitable and efficient respectively. It is however recommended that efforts should be geared toward improving the non-competitive nature of the dried fish market.