Economic Viability of Fish Smoking and Marketing: Evidence from Ibi, Taraba State, Nigeria

This study explored the effects of socio-economic profile of the marketers and determined the economic viability of fish smoking and marketing in Ibi, Taraba State, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was employed to illicit response from 80 respondents for the study. Data collection were through structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis, marketing margin and net marketing margin estimation procedures among others, were used to determine the values of the profitability measures that infer the significant influential variables economic viability of fish smoking and marketing venture. The frequency distribution of respondents according to: - age, gender, marital status, household size, major occupation, educational level, marketing experience and preservation method adopted were constructed and detailed results presented in section 4. Marketing margin obtained was 23.43%, with a net marketing margin of 13.77%, resulting from a total gross and net revenue of smoked fish sales of N1, 378,889 and N810, 580, respectively. The smoked fish selling price, unsmoked fish purchasing price and total smoked fish cost stood at N5,886,079, N4,507,190 and N5,075,449, respectively. The fish smoking efficiency of 3.06 and smoked fish marketing efficiency of 2.43 indicates that the dealers make a net return of 3.06 times per N1.00 invested in fish smoking which sells 2.43 times faster than unsmoked type. Hence, a clear indication that fish smoking and marketing is economically viable in the area studied. It is recommended that national market development coordinating should be put in place to ensure the adoption of standard weight and measure for fish smoking and marketing in the area; cost saving transportation and smoking service facilities should be sustained by private individuals and corporate groups alike to improve efficiency of venture by dealers; capacity building for agricultural extension officers and enumerators on market information service (MIS) should be intensified by Government. Keywords: Economic viability; Marketing Margin; Net Marketing margin; net return, Fish smoking and marketing. DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/52-0