Price analysis of sesame in selected markets, Soroti District.

Abstract

Sesame is one of the most important food crops with nutritional value cultivated and traded in Uganda and all over the World. This study was to analyze the sesame trade in Soroti markets. Specifically, the study sought to (i) characterize participants in the Sesame trade (ii) determine the various sesame products traded (iii) determine the varieties that are traded in Soroti district and (iv) determine the marketing margins of sesame products. Simple random sampling (N=60) was used to select 30 retailers and 30 wholesalers. Data was collected using questionnaires. Data was analyzed descriptively using means, frequencies, and percentages. Results on the socio-economic characteristics of sesame traders indicate that typically a sesame trader was a married female with primary school education. Most sesame traders dealt in sesame seeds while a few of these sesame traders knew the sesame variety they traded and few sesame traders joined produce dealer’s associations. The study also showed that sesame seeds trade was very profitable among other sesame products in the market evidenced by marketing margins of 14.9% in Soroti Main market, 14.1% in Nakatunya market and 8.9% in Arapai market. Since the trading in sesame seed resulted in highest margins, it means that sesame seed trade is more profitable than in other products. A trader who wishes to make profits is better of selling seeds instead of other products. The study concluded that sesame trade had high returns. Other sesame products like sesame paste, sesame cooking oil and sesame cookies had low marketing margins that is to say in Nakatunya market, the marketing margins for sesame paste was 20%. In Arapai market, the marketing margin of seeds was 41.8% for sesame paste, 66.7% for sesame cookies, and 12.5% for sesame cooking oil. The majority of traders (53.6%) do not add value to sesame. Traders should adopt to higher value addition processes like packaging of sesame products to attract more profits that will only be possible if the cost of value addition is reduced. Sesame traders should form or join produce dealer’s associations and also get financial assistance in order to expand on the scale of operation. Sesame traders should know the sesame variety they are dealing in so as to understand pricing of the different varieties of sesame.