Rural Fish Marketing in Africa: Some Empirical Considerations from Nigeria

This paper focuses on rural marketing in Africa. A case study of fish mar­keting was undertaken in Nigeria in I 982. An analysis of the socio-economic profile of the respondents studied indicated that women rather than men were involved in marketing. However, there was a family linkage in the fishery industry in that the women often obtained supplies of fresh fish from their husbands who were often fishermen. This reduced possible collusive activities on the part of the middlemen, implying that the system was relatively efficient, particularly in economic terms. An analysis of marketing margins indicated that frozen fish marketing, which had refrigerated facilities at the producer and wholesale levels, was technically more efficient than fresh fish marketing which did not have these facilities and was less well organized. The main implication of the Nigerian case study for Africa is that rural market development centres on adequate provision of infrastructural facilities for storage, processing, transportation etc