Abstract:
This study examined the marketing of poultry feeds in Anambra State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of the poultry feeds marketers; identify and describe the marketing channels for poultry feeds; describe the promotional activities adopted by these poultry feed marketers; assess the degree of market concentration among wholesalers and retailers of poultry feeds; determine the marketing margins for poultry feeds at wholesale and retail levels and ascertain the factors that determine the selling price by the marketers of poultry feeds. The study was guided by the null hypothesis: There is no difference in the marketing margins of wholesalers and retailers of poultry feeds. A survey design was adopted in the study. Data for the study were collected from a sample of 120 marketers through the use of two sets of structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The data were presented using descriptive statistics while Gini coefficient, marketing margins and multiple regression were used for the analysis. The study showed that males (63.3%) dominated wholesaling, while females (55%) dominated retail marketing business of poultry feeds. About 70-75% of them were within the highly productive age range of 20-50 years. About 11.7% of the retail marketers attended primary school while 43.3% and 45% attended secondary and higher institutions, respectively. Majority (86.7%) of the wholesalers bought directly from producers (feed millers) while 13.3% bought from other wholesalers. Most (95%) of the retailers made their purchases through the wholesalers. Marketers purchased poultry feed products packaged in bags of 25kg weight and distributed same using the same packaging from the producers. Some retailers also sold in producers’ packaging and /or smaller measurement. Majority (88.3%) of the wholesalers obtained information on source of supply through personal contact from others in the same trade or suppliers’ agents. There was poor marketing information as new product introduction strategy was also done by personal contact and price reduction. Popular means of advertisement like radio, television and newspapers were not very common. Only about 5% of the marketers were influenced through the mass media. There were high inequalities in sales distribution as well as income among the marketers as Gini coefficient values of 0.46 and 0.57 were obtained for wholesalers and retailers, respectively. The mean marketing margin of N138/25kg bag or 6% for wholesalers was higher than the mean value of N105/25kg bag or 4% for retailers. There existed a significant (p<0.05) positive correlation among the selling price, buying price and salary of sales clerk for wholesale price. Loading/offloading cost and promotional costs exhibited significant (p<0.05) negative correlation with the wholesale selling price. Analysis of the factors that affected the retail selling price showed that there existed a significant (p<0.05) positive correlation among selling price and transportation costs. Salary of sales clerk exhibited a significant (p<0.05) negative correlation with the retail selling price.
