Mango Value Chain Preliminary Analysis in Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia

The objective of the study was to undertake preliminary analysis of mango value chain specifically, to construct mango marketing channel, assessment of mango marketing margin and profit and the challenges of mango production and marketing. For this study both primary and secondary data were used from key informant interview, telephone interview, focus group discussion with producers and mango traders, and published documents.. Michael Porter value chain frame work followed by commodity approach was used to address the objective of the study. The result of the analysis confirms that there are four channels of mango marketing: producer – collectors – processor (agro-industries) – supermarket – consumers channel; producer – retailer - consumer channel; producer – wholesaler - processor (juice house, café & restaurant)- consumer channel and producer - consumer channel. To measure the performance of the channel, farmer-collector-wholesale- retailer-consumer channel was selected and analyzed. The result indicated that the marketing margin and profit share of the retailer was 37.5% and 34.2%, respectively. On the other hand, the average price of producers, retailers and consumers were 7.50 and 12 birr per kg. Short shelf life of the produce, price competition between actors, price fluctuation (due to seasonality of mango production) , temporary demand of consumers, lack of adequate processing systems, farmers not fully engaged in mango production (lack of mango based livelihood system), license requirement for retailers, shortage of input, disease, shortage of land, awareness of farmers about mango production (processing, management practice, means of income etc) and lack of market information are among the commonly cited constraints of mango production and marketing.