MARKETING OF UZIZA

Code No: 135935

₦5,000.00

ABSTRACT

The study dealt with marketing of uziza in Egor Local Government Area of Edo state. The study was conducted to identify the socio-economic characteristics of respondent, the marketing channels, estimate the determinant of sales, determine the producerâ€™s share of retail price and gross marketing margin, carryout a functional analysis of gross marketing margin and identify the main problems of uziza marketing in the study area. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire supplemented with oral interview and personal observation in the market. Five markets were purposively selected in the local government area and twenty marketers were sampled from each market giving a total sample size of a hundred respondents for the study. Descriptive and budgetary tools were used to analyze data collected. Majority of the marketers interviewed were females(97%), married(68%),within the age group of 41-50years(28%), having only primary education(39%) with less than a year experience(91%) in the trade and have between 6-10years(36%) of business experience. The study encountered mainly retailers (68%). The price of the leaf was a major determinant of sales with a price elasticity of 0.982. 65.11% of the marketing margin was incurred as cost in marketing the vegetable while 34.89% as profit indicating that for every naira invested in the business, a return of 0.0249 naira was derivable. Packaging and washing (1.91%), transportation (54.05%), storage (0.17%), market charges (8.24%) and tax (0.70%), and marketerâ€™s profit (34.89%) accounted for the difference between the producerâ€™s price and consumerâ€™s price. It was also observed that the marketers faced the problem of high cost of vegetable (30.83%), transportation (25.83%) and post harvest loses arising from storage and preservation problem (24.16%). It was established in this study that uziza leaf marketing is profitable in the study area. Therefore it is recommended that the Government should provide good roads and reduce cost of fuel which will ultimately lower transportation cost and reduce the price of vegetable.

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In Nigeria, as in other tropical countries of Africa where the daily diet is dominated by starchy staple foods, traditional vegetables are the cheapest and most readily available sources of important proteins, vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids (Okafor 1983). The nutritional importance of this leafy vegetable is evident in the result of proximate analysis of some leafy vegetables by Okafor et al. (1996) showing that vegetables including uziza (piper guineensis) are valuable sources of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, fats and oils, and proteins. The result showed that uziza (piper guineensis) is very high in moisture content (78. 58%), has high ash content (15.56%), oil (9.3%), protein (18.54%), sodium (3.5ppm), potassium (320ppm), calcium (7.11ppm), magnesium (147ppm), iron (6.12ppm), zinc (2.05ppm) and copper (0.15ppm).
Therefore vegetables are required for daily diet and should consist of at least 30% of our daily food.
Uziza (piper guineensis) also known as climbing black pepper or Benin pepper is of the family piperaceae. The marketable products include leaf, seed and fruit. This woody leafy vegetables are available at strategic periods in the year, namely the dry season, when the conventional cultivated vegetables are scarce. They therefore contribute significantly to the food security and nutritional well being of the local people in the region (Okafor, 1990).
Like other members of the pepper family, uziza contains (5 â€“ 8)% of chemical piperine which provides the hottest. It is used in West-African cuisine where it impacts both pungency and a spicy aroma to classic West African soup. Indeed, uziza as a spice has been extensively used in history for flavouring and seasoning foods, beverages and medicine (Chukwuma, 2007).