Structure, Conduct and Performance of Fish Marketing System in Imo State, Nigeria

The study examined structure, conduct and performance of fish marketing system in Imo State, Nigeria, the problems were the inefficiency in the structure, conduct and performance of fish marketing system and market mechanisms which is not well structured to perform the role for efficient marketing system and non-availability of ready market, the specific objectives were to determine the socio ? economic characteristics of fish marketers, determine the marketing system and marketing channels for fish, determine the level of seller concentration in the market for fish, determine the condition for entry and exit into the market, The study covered all the three agricultural zones namely, Okigwe, Orlu and Owerri agricultural zones. From each zone one urban market and one rural market were purposively selected because of concentration of catfish marketers. With the assistance of market authorities of each market visited, list of catfish traders were selected and a total of 60 catfish marketers were used for the study. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to the selected fish marketers. Data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistical technique such as mean, frequency, Lorenze curve. The result showed the mean age was 46.50 years, 68.33% had tertiary education, 48.33% of the fish marketers purchase fish within Imo state while 28.33 purchase fish from outside Imo State. The mean quantity purchase at once was 93.33kg while the mean unit purchasing price/kg of fish was ?2,425.42, 73.33% indicated that there were free entry and exit to the fish market, 83.33% do not belong to any marketer?s association. The study recommends that fish marketers should form fish marketing cooperative society to enable them pool resources together to buy in bulk, marketers should also think towards building storage facilities to reduce the problem of spoilage of fish.