Challenges and Opportunities of Marketing Fruit and Vegetables at Logia, Northeastern Ethiopia. The Case of Onion, Tomato and Banana

Fruits and Vegetables production and marketing is not a new sector in Ethiopia; it has been undertaken for decades. Even if marketing of horticultural crops like tomato, onion and banana had been increased over the last few years, there are so many market related problems. The main objective of the study was to analyze the challenges and opportunities of marketing onion, tomato and banana at Logia town, Northeastern Ethiopia. The selection of the crops is mainly based on their relative economic importance and marketability. A number of respondents in logia town were interviewed. The analysis was made with the help of descriptive statistics. A total of 96 of which 48 consumer and 48 retailer respondents’ were drawn through purposive sampling technique at each level. The age of respondents ranged from 20-52 years with the average of 36 years. About 14.58% of the sample respondents were illiterate and 27.08% able to read and write. About 64.58 % of the respondents were married. The survey result indicated that, retailers of logia town in average product handled per individual per year were 40-70Qt onions, 100-120 boxes tomatoes and 20-30boxes banana. The respondents in the logia market indicated that as they did not get any support in terms of capacity development from local government as well as from NGOs. The results indicates that marketing system for onion, tomato and banana were predominantly constrained by a number of difficulties like weight cheating, unfair pricing of products by brokers and low quality of the products and lack of cooperative. Onion, tomato and banana are means of income providing business opportunities for actors in the market chain including the producers, brokers, transporters and retailers. Though, marketing of onion, tomato and banana seems profitable as indicated from the survey result and hence great attention should be given to the mode of marketing side to seek stable income from it for all market players and for the government. Keywords: Banana, Challenges, Marketing, Onion, Opportunities, Tomat