ABSTRACT

The goal of marketing of agricultural products is to ensure that consumers get satisfaction from the entire process of production, as well as create benefit to the various participants in the marketing channel. This study on marketing performance of bitter kola Garcinica kola was carried out in Abia State Nigeria. 5 bitter kola marketers were selected from 8 communities. The number was given a sampled of 40 marketers. Descriptive statistics, cost and return analysis and regression techniques were used to analyze the data collected. The result indicated that the higher percentage of marketer were female (53%), majority of marketers were aged between 10-35 years about 53% were singles, and 90% had basic education. The marketing channel showed that bitter kola got to consumers through a number of intermediaries, the significant variables that influenced marketing were age, education, purchase cost, marketing experience, source of capital, and labour average net return from the business study was N645, 957, monthly. Market efficiency recorded was 2.65, and major problem faced by marketers were insufficient capital, weather condition, transportation cost and competition among marketers. The significant variables should be considered when making policies for the market function.