Value Chain Analysis of Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) Production and Marketing from Traditional Agroforestry System, Southern Ethiopia

Southern Ethiopia is known with favorable environment for pineapple, coffee and many other horticultural crop Production. However, the practice has been facing a number of production and marketing constraints. The aim of the present study was therefore; identifying the value chain actors and their roles, mapping the value chain of pineapple production and marketing, and examining the determinants of market supply. Using purposive sampling technique, 105 households were selected from three representative peasant associations for in depth survey. Both primary and secondary data was collected using a combination of PRA tools. Descriptive statistics and econometric analysis using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) were used to analyze the collected data. The result revealed that both primary and secondary actors were involved in pineapple production and marketing. The percentage of market margin for producer, assembler, whole seller, retailer and processor actors were 9.41, 11.86, 18.33, 26.96 and 33.43%, respectively. Producer (34.20%), assembler (3.30%), whole seller (17.39%), retailer (26.78%) and processor (18.33%) were sharing percentage of profit margin in pineapple production. The result of the OLS regression analysis model indicated that market supply of pineapple was affected by wealthy status and duration of storage (p<0.05) and price (p<0.01), positively. Enhancing the local actors’ capacity through training, providing price and market information, credit and other processing facilities and institutional support could result in increasing production and steady supply of the pineapple products. Keywords: actors, pineapple producers, profit margin, value chain DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/84-0