Market performance of Enset products – Kocha and Bulla: The case of dire Enchini Woreda, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia

Enset is a traditional staple food crop in many parts of the densely populated south and south-western highlands of Ethiopia. Enset has multipurpose uses and nothing will be left from the plant and can be dependable source of income. Market performance can be evaluated by analysing costs and margins of marketing agents in different channels. Therefore, an attempt was made to study the marketing cost and market margin of enset in the selected study area, Dire Enchini District, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia which was selected purposively because of the potential for enset production. In the second stage, out of 18 kebeles and 1town kebele in the district, two of them namely HomiHane and Waldo Hine were purposively selected based on the area under enset cultivation. Then the sample respondents were stratified into male and female headed households. A total of 144 respondents were selected randomly using simple random sampling technique in which Proportional Population Sampling system was employed. For the purpose of this study, key informants such as 6 input suppliers, 6 collectors, 6 wholesalers, 12 retailers, 30 consumers and 14 persons from support services like; cooperatives and extension were randomly selected at various levels using simple random sampling from selected kebeles. The data required for the study were collected from both primary and secondary data sources. For primary data collection, semi-structured interview schedule was used after pretesting. Marketing margin was calculated by taking the difference between producers and retail prices. Traders (collectors, wholesalers, and retailers) operating expense was small in amount but the profit margin they got was more than the producer farmers. The traders simply bought from the farmer and sold to consumers. But they took high amount of share profit than the farmers who did all the works from producing enset to processing of enset. This implied that unequal share of benefit was the reflection of power relationship between actors. Based on findings of the study, the following recommendation was made to improve enset value chain in the study area. Encouraging cooperative organizations to collect the enset products from the producers since cooperatives are not involved at present. This will help the farmers to get better price for their products.