Comparative analysis of wholesale and retail frozen fish marketing in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria

The study compared frozen fish marketing in wholesale and retail markets in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State of Nigeria. Specifically, the study identified socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, estimated and compared gross margins in both markets and determined the effects of the marketer’s socioeconomic variables on the volume of sales. Three markets were randomly selected, 10 retail and 10 wholesale frozen fish marketers were randomly selected from each market giving 30 retail marketers and 30 wholesale marketers. Structured questionnaire was used to generate the data. Analytical tools employed were mean, percentage, frequency, gross margin and multiple regression models as well as t-test. The result showed that female dominated the frozen fish markets indicating 87% and 100% in wholesale and retail markets respectively. The dominant age bracket of 31-40 years was 57% and 80% in wholesale and retail markets each. 40% of the respondents in the wholesale market had first degree while majority in the retail marketers had WASC/SSCE with 47%. An estimated gross margin of wholesalers and retailers was ₦129.728.00 and ₦249, 950.70 respectively indicating that frozen fish marketing is profitable. Double log form was chosen as the lead equation because it had the highest R2 of 98.5% which implied that 98.5% of the variation in the gross revenue of the marketers was explained by the independent variables in the model. Cost of transportation, labour and procurement of frozen fish positively influenced the revenue of the marketers and was significant at 5% while cost of processing and storage negatively influenced the revenue of the marketers at 5%. The t-test value of 5.44 suggests that gross margin of frozen fish marketers in the wholesale market is significantly different from the gross margin in the retail market. Therefore, null hypothesis was rejected. High costs of transportation, inadequate supply of frozen fish in the market were the major constraints in the frozen fish marketing. It is recommended that government should put in place policies that would enhance frozen fish marketers’ access to loans in order to increase their gross revenue.Keywords: Comparative, Frozen fish, Marketing, Port Harcourt, Metropoli