ABSTRACT

A study to analyse the marketing efficiency of palm oil in Ikeduru, Imo State. Specifically, tile objectives of the study are to: identify the marketing channels, examine the costs and returns of palm oil marketing, identify and analyse the factors that influenced the quantity of palm oil marketed by processors and wholesalers, identify the problems and prospects of palm oil marketing and make recommendations based on the findings. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample respondents and thus well structured questionnaire served as a source of primary data. Thereafter, the data wre analysed using tables, percentages and simple equations, and the following finding were made: Wholesalers had a marketing margin of 19.8 1%, net returns of N88 1.25 and marketing efficency of 204% The regression analysis revealed that age, sex, niarial status, house hold size, occupation, years of trading experience, level of education, number of dependence, etc were some of the socio-econornic variables that influenced quantity of palm oil marketed by wholesalers and processors. Four marketing channels were found out for wholesalers and processors respectively.