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The Role of Middlemen in Fresh Tomato Supply Chain in Kilolo District, Tanzania
The Role of Middlemen in Fresh Tomato Supply Chain in Kilolo District, Tanzania
The Role of Middlemen in Fresh Tomato Supply Chain in Kilolo District, Tanzania
IJAM
Department of Procurement and Logistics Management, Mzumbe University School of Business, P.O. Box 6, Morogoro
Tanzania.
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3151, MorogoroTanzania
The paper aimed to analyze the role of middlemen in linking smallholder tomato farmers with
Dar-es-salaam markets, Tanzania. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 133
small vegetable farmers and 109 traders. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics
such as frequencies, percentage, chi-square and one way analysis of variance. The study
revealed that majority (58%) of smallholder tomato farmers sold their produce to middlemen due
to being geographical separated from the markets, poor local road network and poor access to
market information. This study concluded that the use of middlemen to sell tomato produce
cannot be avoided unless smallholder farmers are linked with urban markets. In order to
enhance farmers access to markets, it is recommended that the government should strive to
improve feeder roads. Improvement in feeder roads is likely to bring about large welfare gains
in terms of large volumes of tomatoes traded and can make assembling of tomatoes easier and
less costly for traders.
Key words: Kilolo, tomato supply chain, Tanzania, smallholder farmers, middlemen
INTRODUCTION
Vegetable subsector in Tanzania has the potential to
advance Tanzanias objectives of economic growth and
poverty reduction (Amani, 2005). This is because the
subsector is largely dominated by smallholder farmers
and the dominance of smallholder farmers in the
subsector offers an opportunity for making an impact on
Tanzanias poverty reduction efforts (Kawa and Kaitira,
2007). Besides being dominated by smallholder farmers,
the potential of the subsector to alleviate poverty
particularly income poverty stems from the high demand
for vegetables in urban markets (Weinberger and
Lumpkin, 2007). Most of the demand for vegetables in
Tanzania is in urban areas like Dar es Salaam. Like
producers of vegetables elsewhere in Tanzania, tomato
farmers in Kilolo District depend on Dar es Salaam as the
major market for their tomatoes. It is estimated that Dar
es Salaam absorbs about 60% of the tomatoes from
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
046
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in Kilolo District in Iringa
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
047
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
048
No of tomato household
Sample
size
Madizini
840
44
Masukanzi
Lugalo
860
890
44
45
5
5
Total
2 590
133
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Consumers
Tomato supply
chain functions
Retailers
Retailing
Consumption
Processing and
wholesaling
Wholesalers
Assemblers
Bulking
Packaging
Transportation
Tomato Farmers
Production
Input supply
Input suppliers and service providers
AS=Actors share
AP=Actor price
Pi= Price of tomato at market level i in Tshs/per tenga.
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Table 2. Distribution of farmers by land area under tomato production (acres) during 2010 tomato growing season
Madizini
Masukanzi
Lugalo
Whole sample
Minimum
Maximum
0.25
1
0.25
0.50
0.25
2
0.25
2
Mean
0.28
0.27
0.35
0.30
SD
0.13
0.07
0.20
0.15
Table 3. Tomato varieties planted by sampled farmers in 2010 tomato growing season
Seed
variety
Tanya
Roma
Village
Madizini
No
19
25
%
4.3
18.8
Masukanzi
No
%
14
5.3
30
22.6
Lugalo
No
7
38
%
5.3
8.6
Total
No
40
93
%
30.1
69.9
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Table 4. Cost of tomato seeds and fertilizer paid by sampled farmers in 2010 tomato growing season
Madizini
Masukanzi
Lugalo
N
44
44
45
SD
0 000
2 771
1 894
SD
4 317
3 940
4 606
Table 5. Cost of pesticides and hired labour paid by sample farmers in 2010 tomato growing season
Village
Madizini
Masukanzi
Lugalo
F = 7.808***
N
44
44
45
SD
000
000
000
Labor charge
Min
Max
15 000
80 000
20 000
85 000
10 000
140 000
Mean
38 600
43 300
56 300
SD
17 399
18 009
26 955
***Significant at 1%
Table 6. Volume of tomatoes harvested per household during April-June 2010 tomato growing season (In tenga)
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Madizini
50
120
87
Masukanzi
45
110
85
Lugalo
70
120
94
Whole sample
50
120
88
SD
18.68
15.599
13.72
16.50
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Table 7. Volume of fresh tomatoes handled by assemblers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Quantity bought
Quantity sold
SD
400
395
2 054
2 049
7 760
7 750
2 226
2 218
Table 8. Fresh tomato prices paid and received by assemblers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Buying price
Selling price
Mean
7 861
1 6611
SD
1 663
4 114
Table 9. Volume of tomatoes handled by wholesalers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Quantity bought
Quantity sold
Table 10. Prices paid and received by wholesalers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Min
7000
Max
18000
Mean
11200
SD
2665
Selling price
18000
40000
25850
5907
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Table 11. Volume of fresh tomatoes handled by retailers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Quantity bought
Quantity sold
SD
135
11
Table 12. Prices paid and received by retailers in April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Buying price
Selling price
Mean
9 424
26 200
SD
1 723
2 719
Table 13. Losses among traders category during April-June 2010 tomato growing season
Type of trader
Assemblers
Wholesalers
Retailers
Table 14. Actors share of the price paid by consumers along the longest fresh tomato supply chain in April-June
2010 tomato growing season
Marketing node
Farm level
Assembling level
Wholesale level
Retail level
Price (Tshs)
7 515
16 611
25 850
26 200
Marketing margin
8 596
9 739
350
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania
Copyright: 2015 Mwagike and Mdoe. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are cited.
The role of middlemen in fresh tomato supply chain in Kilolo district, Tanzania