BASELINE STUDIES ON THE MARKETING OF AMARANTHUS IN TAMALE

Abstract

This paper examined the marketing of amaranthus in terms of handling, access to market information and consumer demand in four major markets in the Tamale metropolis. The study was done in May 2011 by employing a semi structured questionnaire for interviewing 50 randomly sampled respondents. Results from the study showed that females are the retailers of amaranthus. Majority (56%) of the respondents had no formal education and the percentage of respondents with secondary education (28%) was more than those with primary education (16%). Retailers had their daily consignments from 8 areas in and around Tamale with Choggu (36%) and Gumbihini (34%) dominating in supplies of amaranthus to Tamale markets. Retailers (76%) fixed market prices based on farm gate prices agreed on by farmers at the beginning of a production period. 30% of the respondents always washed their consignments before display. Fifty two (52%) percent of retailers observed that consumers normally prefer smaller bundles while 48% indicated that consumers prefer bigger bundles. Other consumer preferences were for flavour (18.7%), maturity (18%), quality grades (15%) and packaging (19%). A major constraint strongly indicated by all (100%) respondents is the high perishable nature of amaranthus under the high temperature environment that produce are displayed. The full potential of amaranthus as a market commodity will be harnessed when the post harvest handling and marketing activities are well organized for the up scaling of the commodity to formal markets (supermarkets) like Quality First.