ABSTRACT

The study evaluated spatial and temporal price of oil palm produce marketing in Southeast, Nigeria. Specifically, it addressed the following objectives: socio-economic characteristics of the palm produce marketers, cost and returns of marketers, determinants of net returns, spatial and temporal price efficiency, market integration, growth rates and constraints to palm produce marketing. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data were collected from oil palm produce wholesalers in the various markets with the aid of structured questionnaire. Secondary data were obtained from the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) offices of the selected states namely Abia, Enugu and Imo in Southeast, Nigeria. The secondary data covered the wholesale monthly prices of oil palm produce (palm oil and palm kernel) for 60 months (from January 2014 to December 2018). A multi-stage sampling technique involving purposive and random sampling procedures were adopted in the selection of 180 palm oil wholesalers and 120 palm kernel wholesalers.  Analytical tools used were descriptive statistics, cost and return analysis, regression models, spatial price model, temporal price model, co-integration analysis, trend analysis and factor analysis. Result on socio-economic characteristics showed a mean age of 48 years for palm oil and palm kernel wholesalers. Majority of the wholesalers (57.2% and 62.9%) were married for palm oil and palm kernel respectively. Females dominated palm oil marketing while males constituted 59.2% for that of palm kernel. The wholesale marketers spent an average of 11 years in school. Mean household size of 5 persons was gotten for palm oil and mean household of 7 persons was for palm kernel. More of the palm oil wholesalers (66%) were members of market union while half (50%) of the palm kernel wholesalers, were also members of market union. Palm produce wholesale marketing was profitable with net returns of N88,154.08 and N156,123.24 for palm oil and palm kernel. Age, sex, purchase price and transportation cost were significant factors that negatively affected net returns while household size, educational level, marketing experience and selling price were significant variables that positively influenced net returns of palm oil wholesalers. For palm kernel wholesalers, household size, educational level, marketing experience, membership of market union and selling price had positive effect on net returns while age, purchase price, transportation cost and storage cost were inversely related to their net returns Positive price spreads were recorded between the market pairs for palm oil and palm kernel. Palm produce prices were correlated and significant at P<0.01 and P<0.05. Temporal price relationships indicated that net seasonal price increases exceeded cost of storage for both palm oil and palm kernel. Palm produce markets were co-integrated. Index of market connection showed slow transmission of prices between the market pairs. Change in price of palm produce in the rural and urban markets was influenced by time variable. There was stagnation on growth rates of oil palm produce prices. Major constraints identified in the study were inadequate finance, high transportation cost and limited access to market price information. Government should formulate policies that will stabilize prices of palm produce over time. Improvement in marketing infrastructure like roads and communication facilities would greatly lead to efficient marketing of oil palm produce and improve price transmission among rural and urban markets in Southeast, Nigeria.